Below are some details of what transpired at the Presidential Election Petition Court on Friday, June 23, 2023, as documented by “General” Oluchi via Twitter.
Oluchi kicked off with a sarcastic reminder that “if a deputy Governor commits perjury, the governor will always be disqualified!” adding “the same applies to the president and his vice”.
And it goes like this…
Today’s PEPT hearing is scheduled for 3pm. We hope the judges will arrive on time because the courthouse closes at 6pm. If the judges arrive on time, we can expect at least 2.5 hours of hearing. If not, the sitting time might be less. If you deduct their usual roll call that lasts 15-25 mins, we might have less than 2 hours for the hearing. I don’t know if they will sit on Saturday, but we will find out.
The judges just arrived 26 minutes later after scheduling the hearing at 3pm.
PDP’s case is eating into our time, so LP’s hearing has been postponed to 4:30pm.
PDP is giving APC and INEC woto woto in court. They brought up the Chicago University issue.
PDP’s case ended and the judges left for a short break. Now we wait for them to return for LP’s case and it’s almost 5 PM.
The judges are finally here.
The judges are taking roll call as usual, so we are waiting.
After the lawyers announced their appearances, a witness Yunusa Tanko, The Chief Spokesperson of the Presidential Campaign Council, and the National Director OF Media for LP, was called to the witness box. INEC’s lawyer asked him to confirm where he was on February 25th, 2023, and he said he was at his polling unit after which he left for the LP Situation Room at Asokoro.
The lawyer asked where else he went to aside the PU and the Situation Room, and he said nowhere else. The lawyer asked if he was a PU agent, or a collation agent and he said he was the Collation agent at the situation room. The lawyer asked again if he was the PU agent or collation agent for LP at any INEC center and he said he’s the agent at his own PU.
The lawyer asked Yunusa to read a portion of his Witness Statement which the witness read out loud to the court. The lawyer asked him if he’s aware that LP appealed the judgment and the witness said he’s not aware. The lawyer showed the witness 2 exhibits to review and was asked which of them was from LP and the witness replied that it is mutilated and difficult for him to read or confirm.
The lawyer asked him to check again if he sees LP’s score, and the witness insisted that it is mutilated and not readable. The lawyer took the document to the judges to inspect and then returned to the witness to read out the score on the exhibit, but the witnesses insisted that he can’t read anything on the exhibit because it’s mutilated with ink.
The lawyer asked Yunusa, which is the problem, that the evidence is mutilated or blurred, but the witness replied that it is mutilated AND blurred. The lawyer asked him to review a paragraph on his Witness Statement paragraph 9, he was asked to confirm how many Party Agents LP had, and the witness replied that there are 133,000 PA for Labour Party after mixing up the actual scores.
Tinubu’s lawyer began interrogating the witness. He asked the witness when he left the National Conscience Party (NCP) and he said May 2022. The lawyer asked him if LP came third in the allocation and the witness said yes. The lawyer asked if PDP and his presidential candidate Atiku came second, and the witness said yes. The lawyer asked him if LP won in his polling unit in Abuja and he said yes. The lawyer asked if LP won in 5 Eastern states and 7 other states in Nigeria, and the witness said, “yes, if the results are…”, but the lawyer interrupted asking for a yes or no answer.
The lawyer said he’s already answered yes and tried to move away from the statement, but the witness said he hasn’t completed his statement. The lawyer asked where Obi is from, and the witness said Anambra state. The lawyer said Obi scored 95.7% of the votes in Anambra, but the witness said he doesn’t know. The lawyer said that’s Obi’s actual score in Anambra, but the witness replied that the results are not uploaded by INEC so how do we know what we have or what we won when INEC didn’t do the needful?
The lawyer asked Yunusa that in his WS paragraph 100, he said he can recognize unlawful results from the IREV, he was asked to tell the court how many unlawful votes are there.
The witness said he went by what his experts said, and the lawyer asked him to tell the courts what his experts said, and the witness said he doesn’t know. The lawyer asked him to go to paragraph 103 of his WS, “you want the petitioner declared as the winner of the election and cancel the votes of other candidate, please tell the court the candidate you want their votes canceled.” The witness said they want the votes of the second respondents to be canceled.
The lawyer asked him to tell the court the number of valid votes scored by Peter Obi but the witness said he doesn’t know; the scores were gotten from experts. The lawyer asked him to answer the simple question, but the witness said the expert will give that answer and not him. The judge told him to answer the question because it’s simple. “If you don’t know you say you don’t know.” The witness replied to the judge that he already said he doesn’t know, it’s for the expert to answer.
APC’s lawyer began interrogating the witness, Yunusa. The lawyer asked the witness if he read all the statements in his WS, and the witness said he did. The lawyer said to him that he didn’t open the box of the evidence he identified yesterday, he didn’t check them thoroughly, but the witness replied that he opened the box and checked the documents.
The lawyer asked if he checked ALL of them, but the witness replied that he didn’t check all. The lawyer asked him if he was receiving periodic updates from INEC as the party spokesperson, but the witness said he only gets information from the chairman who speaks with INEC. The lawyer asked the witness if he knows that INEC announced that they won’t upload results electronically, but the witness said he’s not aware, but he’s aware of Festus Okoye’s statement saying results would be uploaded electronically.
APC’s lawyer asked Yunusa about the documents already tendered as evidence. He said the documents exhibit are certified true copies from INEC and the witness confirmed it. The lawyer asked him to confirm if the documents were obtained on April 6th, March 31st, April 4th, April 5th, April 25th. The witness confirmed that they received mutilated results too. He also sees receipts of payment for the documents.
The lawyer pointed out that in Paragraph 102, the witness relied on the documents for his WS and the witness replied yes. The lawyer told him that those documents weren’t tendered in these proceedings, but the witness said they are still tendering the documents so it’s not too late.
APC’s lawyer told the witness that LP relied on evidence of forensic experts and the witness said yes. He told the witness that the deposition was made on March 20th and the witness said Yes. The lawyer asked him if he’s aware that the final reports of his experts were in May 2023 and that the issues brought to court were only for lack of transmission of results on the IREV and not snatching of ballot boxes, but the witness replied that LP’s case was on 2 grounds which are double nominations and forfeiture. APC lawyer tried to tender PDP v INEC & ORS on double nomination as evidence, but LP lawyers objected to it. However, the judges admitted it.
Dr. Livy Uzoukwu told the court that they still have 2 witnesses to present, but the respondents argued that today is the last day for LP to present their documents and witnesses so why are they still presenting witnesses. He read out the schedule the judges provided during the pre-hearing, so he is objecting to an extension for the respondents. The court took 10 mins break to deliberate. It is going to be a long day in court.
After the short break, another witness, Emmanuel Yaro was presented. He swore with the bible and will testify in English Language. Ikechukwu Ezechukwu SAN (LP) began questioning the witness. He asked for his address which the witness provided. He is from Kaduna State. The witness confirmed that he was invited to court with a subpoena, then tendered a copy as evidence. The respondents did not object.
INEC’s lawyer asked the witness what role he played on the election day, and he said he was a Presiding Officer. He asked the witness if INEC trained him on what to do and he said yes. The lawyer asked if he successfully used the BVAS for the accreditation of voters and the witness said yes. The lawyer asked if he successfully counted and recorded the votes, and he said yes. The lawyer asked if he recorded the votes manually and the witness said yes.
The lawyer asked if the only problems he had on that day was with uploading of results and he said yes. The lawyer asked if he had problems with accreditation as written on his WS and he said it’s there (referring to his WS) but the lawyer said it’s not. His WS was shown to him, but the witness couldn’t find it. He was speechless and the lawyer asked again if the only problem he had was just uploading the results on the IREV but the witness didn’t say a word. The lawyer asked what he did when he couldn’t upload results, the witness said he called his boss to let him know.
Tinubu’s lawyer began interrogating the witness. He asked the witness if he signed the results he manually recorded, and the witness said yes. The lawyer asked if the Party Agents signed also, and he said yes. The lawyer asked if he gave the party agents their copies, and the witness said yes. That was all for Tinubu’s lawyer.
Dr. Livy just announced that they are done presenting their case as scheduled. Their allotted time is up, and they will now step aside for the respondents to begin their case. The respondents will open their case starting tomorrow or next week. This does not mean that Labour Party dropped their case or fled from the case. The trial is still on.
The court is adjourned till July 3rd, 2023.
Side musings by Oluchi:
Here are frequently asked questions I came across in my comments and the simplest way to understand them.
- Petitioners – Those who filed the case in court. In this case, Peter Obi & LP are the Petitioners.
- Respondents – Those who were sued in court. In this case, INEC, Tinubu, Shettima, APC are all respondents.
- The judges admitted the documents means the judges accepted them for review.
- Witness – Someone who can give account on a particular issue. Maybe they saw something, heard something or know something that is relevant or useful to the case.
- An expert witness – An expert witness is a person with extensive experience or knowledge in a specific field or discipline beyond what is expected from a layperson.
- Court is adjourned until, means the case will hold another day.
- Objection means we disagree.
- Evidence – any item or document that is relevant or useful to the case.
Oluchi added:
Only criminals defend criminals.
If you investigate the so-called educated people defending Tinubu, you will surely find something suspicious about their academic backgrounds. It is not news that people buy certificates on the internet and are practicing or working with it. It’s usually too late by the time they’re discovered.
It all started from WAEC special centers. Today, people sell academic certificates on the internet. Just search and you’ll find, so people who do this are more likely to defend their kind.
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