The Labour Party (LP) candidate Peter Obi requested permission to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) about the technology it used to conduct the general elections on February 25th, but the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) in Abuja rejected the petition he filed.
Peter Obi had requested in his motion that the tribunal order INEC to respond to 12 key questions on an interrogatory he had submitted on May 22.
The former governor of Anambra State has asked INEC to provide the court with information on the date the purportedly enhanced technological system it used for the elections underwent a functional test as well as the names and contact information of individuals who conducted the test.
He equally urged the court to compel INEC to supply its answers to the following questions; “Who created/deployed the four (4) Applications Patches/Updates to fix the HTTP 500 error that prevented the e-transmission of the results of the Presidential election on 25th February 2023?
“What was the exact time of the occurrence of the technical glitch which prevented the e-transmission of the result of the Presidential election on 25th February 2023?
“What time were the technological glitches fixed and or repaired?
“What percentage of the result of the Presidential election was uploaded on the I-Rev on 25th February 2023?
“What percentage of the result of the Presidential election was uploaded on the I-Rev as at the time of the declaration of the Result of the Presidential election on 1st March 2023?
“If the Presidential Election was conducted concurrently with the National Assembly Elections on the same day and at the same time using the same technological devices, why were there glitches only with respect to the Presidential Election?”
However, the court was urged to dismiss the application for lack of competence by all Respondents (INEC, All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, and Kashim Shettima).
The application was dismissed on Saturday by a five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani on the grounds that it was filed outside the pre-hearing period.
The panel approved Obi and the LP to play the two videos they had submitted as evidence in open court.
Ada Peter
