The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reacted to an allegation that it deducted 2.5 million votes from the scores obtained by Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election.
INEC’s lead counsel, A.B. Mahmoud (SAN), told the tribunal that the claim made by Obi was false and that he had no evidence to substantiate it.
Mahmoud made this denial in his final written address dated July 14.
Therefore, he asked the court to dismiss the petition, adding that Obi’s witness failed to tender before the PEPC the polling unit results he used to arrive at the allegation.
He said:
“Curiously, if the 18, 088 Polling Unit results as uploaded on iReV are blurred, what of the duplicate copies in the possession of the Petitioners’ Polling Agents?
“We submit that the totality of the testimony and evidence of the so-called experts (PWs 4, 7, and 8) called by the Petitioners are manifestly unreliable and cannot ground the incidents of non-compliance pleaded by the Petitioners.
“We submit that there is no credible evidence to prove that votes in those 18,088 polling units were suppressed just because blurred results were allegedly uploaded on the iReV.
“The petitioners have only left the same to conjecture and speculation which never form part of the determination of the court.”
