The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Monday admitted as an exhibit, the final report of the European Union Election Observer Mission, which faulted the conduct and outcome of the 2023 presidential election that produced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and others as winners.
The report tendered by the former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar was admitted as an exhibit in spite of vehement objections by President Bola Tinubu, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the report, the EU election observer mission claimed that the presidential election did not show credibility, fairness, and transparency in the ways and manners it was conducted by INEC.
The report tendered through INEC’s sole witness and Director of Information Technology (IT), Dr. Lawrence Bayode, said only 31 percent of the presidential election results were uploaded into INEC’s result viewing portal.
Before the admission of the report, Atiku, through his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN, had applied that cross-examination of the INEC’S witness must be kick-started by Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress APC in view of their common interests against Atiku’s petition.
The application was however bluntly opposed by Tinubu and APC through their lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun SAN, and Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi SAN, respectfully.
However, the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led panel, admitted it as evidence.
