FOLLOWING a summon issued on him, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, the day past produced earlier than the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, a record that contained President Bola Tinubu’s age.
The document, recognised as Form EC9, was once an affidavit of non-public particulars which President Tinubu submitted to the INEC in resource of his qualification to contest the 2023 presidential election.
Former Vice President and candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is difficult the outcome of the presidential election that held on February 25, had in an software filed thru his prison team, persuaded the court docket to summon the INEC boss to, among different reveals he requested for, produce the document containing Tinubu’s bio-data.
Atiku, in a joint petition filed with his party, insisted that President Tinubu had “demonstrated inconsistency as to his real date of birth, secondary schools he attended (Government College Ibadan); his nation of origin, gender, proper name; certificates evidencing universities attended (Chicago State University).
“The purported degree Certificate of the 2nd Respondent allegedly received at the Chicago State University did not belong to him but to a woman (F) described as “F” in the Certificate bearing the name Bola Tinubu.
“The 2nd Respondent did no longer disclose to the 1st Respondent (INEC) his voluntary acquisition of the citizenship of Republic of Guinea with Guinean Passport No. D00001551, in addition to his Nigerian citizenship. The 2nd Respondent is hereby given note to produce the unique copies of his stated two passports.’’
Sequel to an application by way of the petitioners, the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel on May 26, issued a subpoena for the INEC chairman to produce eleven sets of exhibits.
Consequently, at the resumed proceedings in the case yesterday, though Prof. Yakubu used to be no longer physically present in court, he sent a senior legitimate of the fee to gentle four of the requested exhibits.
His representative, Mrs. Moronkeji Tairu, advised the court docket that she is a Deputy Director, Certification
Answering questions from APC’s lawyer, Prince Fagbemi, SAN, the witness, said: “I have been following INEC’s activities on the grounds that 1999. I am conscious that the chairman of INEC had in the buildup to the 2023 usual elections, cited that results of the election would be electronically transmitted and in real time.
“I, however, did no longer hear at any time earlier than the election when he stated that owing to the difficulty of safety and cash crunch, the fee may want to no longer transmit effects of the election electronically.”
Asked if he extracted information from the BVAS machines before packaging his report, the witness, said: “As at the time of making ready the report, the BVAS machines had already been reconfigured for any other round of elections. So they had been no longer handy for me to extract facts from them.
“I am aware that the laid down rule was that the BVAS machines had been to be used for the accreditation of voters,” he added.
He told the court docket that from effects of 26 states he analysed with his team, comprising six members, Atiku secured majority votes in 12 states.
“I used to be the solely one that signed the report due to the fact I was the team leader,” he added.
However, the APC drew the interest of the courtroom to the fact that while the witness in a web page in his report, claimed he analysed effects in 28 states, on some other page, he claimed the evaluation used to be with admire to all the 36 states of the federation.
The Justice Tsammani-led panel adjourned in addition listening to on the case until today.