We have no defence, we will rely on Atiku’s witnesses – INEC tells tribunal

• President Buhari opens defence Tuesday

 

BY OUR EDITOR

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Monday said it would not call any witness to defend the petition the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, filed to challenge the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23 presidential election.

The Justice Mohammed Garba-led five-member panel tribunal had on July 19, ordered the electoral body to open its defence to the petition. The panel gave INEC six days to call its witnesses and tender evidence to defend the return it made on February 27, which declared President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the disputed presidential poll.

The petitioners had since closed their cases after they called a total of 62 witnesses and tendered over 40, 000 documents they urged the tribunal to rely on and nullify President Buhari’s re-election.

However, when proceeding resumed today, INEC, through its lead counsel, Mr. Yunus Usman, SAN, told the tribunal that it had no defence.

The commission said it resolved to rely on response of all the petitioners’ witnesses during cross-examination. It argued that evidence the petitioners presented was enough to sustain the declaration it made after the election, saying there was no need to waste judicial time of the tribunal.

“My lords, we have painstakingly reviewed the evidence of the petitioners’ witnesses and also painstakingly studied petitioners’ witness evidence under cross-examination, which supports our defence and denial in consonance with our pleadings.

“We do not see the need to waste the time of the tribunal in repeating the same thing.

“In the circumstance, we will not call any witness to help them prove their case. We therefore rely on the petitioner’s witnesses under cross-examination”, Usman, SAN, stated.

Following the development, President Buhari’s lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, said his client was ready to kick-start his defence on Tuesday.

“In view of this development, the 2nd respondent will most honourably be asking that we kick-start calling our witnesses by 2pm tomorrow. We assure the tribunal that when we start, we won’t ask for an adjournment”, Olanipekun added.

On his part, counsel to the petitioners, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, said he was “profusely” thankful to INEC for not calling any witness to defend the case of his clients.

Consequently, the tribunal granted President Buhari’s request to be allowed to open his defence on Tuesday.

Meantime, speaking to journalists after the proceeding, INEC’s lawyer, said the Commission saw no reason to enter any defence since expert witnesses that were produced by the petitioners admitted that they never saw any sever through which results of the presidential poll were transmitted.

He said the witnesses also confirmed that purported presidential election results the petitioners tendered before the tribunal were not documents that were downloaded from INEC’s server.

But an information communication technology (ICT) expert from Kenya, Mr. David Njorga, had told the tribunal that INEC transmitted results of the presidential election to a central server.

Njorga, who was subpoenaed to appear as a witness, said he conducted analysis and findings on result of the election as was electronically transmitted to the server. He said results from the server was directly copied to a website he gave as www.factsdontlieng.com, which he said was created by an official of INEC that acted as a Whistle-blower.

Also, the former Aviation Minister and National Collation Agent of the PDP for the presidential election, Chief Osita Chidoka, who was described as the star witness, had told the tribunal that even though he never saw INEC’s server, he said the chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had before the election, assured all the parties that the server existed.

• Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/07/presidential-tribunal-we-wont-call-any-witness-to-defend-atikus-petition-inec/