₦airaland Forum

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmood has tendered documents before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in respect of the petition of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The documents were tendered on Thursday through Mrs Morenikeji Tairu, Deputy Director, Certification and Complaints, Legal Drafting and Clearance Department of the commission.

They include Form EC9 of President Bola Tinubu, who is the second respondent in the petition.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that Form EC9 is an affidavit in support of particulars of persons seeking election to the office of president and vice-president.

The court had issued a subpoena on Mahmood in respect of certain documents relating to the conduct of the Feb. 25 presidential election following an application by Atiku.

Counsel to the petitioners, Mr Chris Uche, SAN, said that the petitioners in the application of May 26, listed 11 items for Mahmood to bring before the court.

Mrs Tairu, however, told the court that only four items requested by the petitioners were available.

She said that the items available were Form EC8D series (results from states); EC8DA (final declaration of results); Certified True Copies (CTCs) of Rivers Bi-modal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) report.

Others were the BVAS report from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Form EC9 of Tinubu (personal information supplied by Tinubu to INEC in aid of his qualification for the presidential election).

INEC’s lawyer, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, counsel to Tinubu, Mr Wole Olanipekin, SAN and that of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) all objected to the admissibility of the documents in evidence.

Uche, while responding to INEC’s position that the certified documents had not been paid for, reiterated that his clients had so far paid the sum of N6.7 million to INEC for certification.

He added that the documents brought before the court were court subpoenaed documents.

Atiku and the PDP are before the PEPC challenging the process and the outcome of the Feb. 25 presidential election which produced Tinubu as president.

They are also contending that the election was conducted in violation of the electoral laws.

The petitioners are also insisting that President Tinubu was not qualified to contest the poll on the grounds of alleged double nomination and dual citizenship.

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