Obi Seeks Tribunal’s Nod To Question INEC On ICT Experts

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 election, Mr Peter Obi, has sought an order of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert.

In two separate motions argued on his behalf by Mr Patrick Ikweto, SAN, Obi sought to know the quality of the ICT experts deployed in the use of technology for the conduct of the election.

Obi and his party prayed the court to compel INEC to supply them with names and profiles of ICT personnel that handled the technological aspects of the election.

They posed 12 questions to be forwarded to the electoral body for answers so as to aid him and LP in establishing their allegations of poor conduct, especially malpractices, in the conduct of the election.

He claimed that the request, if granted, would assist him in the effective presentation of his petition challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner of the election.

However, INEC, represented by Mr Kemi Pinhero, SAN, objected to Obi’s bid to subject his client to interrogation through what he described as incompetent applications.

The senior lawyer argued that Obi’s applications had become belated because he brought them outside of the time allowed by law.

Specifically, Pinhero argued that such an application ought to have been brought and argued during the pre-hearing session, adding that bringing the application outside the pre-hearing session has robbed the court of jurisdiction to hear it.

He insisted that the application must fail because it is a waste of time, adding that the precious time of the court must not be expended on such a request.

President Tinubu, represented by Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) represented by Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, also kicked against granting of the request, insisting that the application is grossly incompetent in the face of the law.

The presiding justice, Haruna Tsammani, reserved ruling on the applications and fixed June 9 for further hearing in the petition.