Professor Yakubu Mahmood, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), will appear before the Presidential Election Petition Court on Friday, June 16, to offer the Certified True Copy of the Voter Register used by his commission in the 2023 presidential election.
Yakubu, who would be brought to court by top electoral officials, was summoned by the court at the request of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the February 25 presidential election.
Chris Uche SAN, the lead counsel for Atiku and the PDP, whose joint lawsuit is disputing President Bola Tinubu’s declaration, dropped the clue towards the end of Thursday’s court sessions.
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Uche stated that the subpoena issued to summon the INEC chairman has been confirmed.
During Thursday’s hearings, the election umpire presented four sets of documents to the court in response to the PDP and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s appeal.
Among the documents presented is President Bola Tinubu’s Form EC9, which provides the information he provided INEC to get election clearance.
Tinubu is the petition’s second respondent, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) is the third.
Following an application by Atiku, the court issued a subpoena to Mahmood for certain papers pertaining to the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.
Mrs Moronkeji Tairu, Deputy Director, Certification and Complaints, Legal Drafting and Clearance Department, INEC Headquarters, Abuja, who was scheduled to present the documents before the court on Thursday, did so instead.
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Uche revealed that the petitioners in their May 26 application cited 11 issues for the INEC boss to produce before the court.
Mrs Tairu, on the other hand, noted that only four items requested by the petitioners were brought on Thursday, naming them as Form EC8D series (state results); EC8DA (final declaration of results); Certified True Copies (CTCs) of Rivers Bi-modal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) report, BVAS reports from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Tinubu’s Form EC9 (personal information supplied by Tinubu to IN
Despite the fact that INEC’s counsel, Abubakar Mahmoud SAN, joined Tinubu and APC’s lawyers in objecting to the documents’ inclusion, the court admitted them as evidence, stressing that a judgement on the objections will be given later.
Uche, in response to INEC’s claim that the certified documents were not paid for, stated that the petitioners had already paid N6.7 million to INEC for certification, and that the documents submitted before the court were court subpoenaed.
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The former vice president has taken President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to court, disputing the method and eventual outcome of Tinubu’s election as president.
Aside from allegations of irregularities and substantial non-compliance with electoral laws for which Atiku and the PDP are seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s declaration as winner of the February 25 presidential election, the petitioners insist that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the poll due to alleged perjury, double nomination, dual citizenship, forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America over alleged complicity in dissent, and alleged complicity in dissent.
Meanwhile, the Court’s Presiding Justice, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, has set June 16 as the date for the petition’s continuation hearing.
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