The Presidential Election Petition Court has struck out Labour Party (LP) and Obi’s application seeking approval to interrogate Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, relating to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts used by the INEC in the conduct of the election.
In a unanimous ruling on Saturday the court held that the application was incompetent having being filed out of the pre -hearing session.
Presiding Justice of the five man panel Haruna Tsammani who delivered the lead ruling said that the application ought to have been filed in accordance with the law.
He noted that the pre -hearing session closed on May 22 and its report was presented by the Court on May 23, 2023. The applicant did not draw to the attention of the court to the said application he filed.
Since he did not move the application, it is assumed that he had abandoned them.
The court also held that the applicant failed to obtain leave of the court to file the application . Justice Tsammani said assuming the applicant came under special circumstances, as he applicant claimed,he would have applied for leave of the court to bring it in the first place.
Jibrin Okutepa SAN who represented LP and Obi on Saturday said the chance to interrogate INEC IT personnel over election glitches particularly the failure to transmit February 25 presidential election results in real time has not been closed.
He said the legal team will seek other means to bring INEC’s IT personnel to court to answer questions on BVAS.
Meanwhile, Okutepa SAN on Saturday led Channel Television senior reporter Lucky Obewo- Isawode in evidence -in- chief and played a flash drive( exhibit) where Chairman of INEC Prof Muhmood Yakubu was assuring that the results of Presidential election would be transmitted in real time from polling Units to I-Rev portal .
Further hearing of the petition has been adjourned to June 13.