The DAAR Communications Plc. broadcast journalist Ms Ijeoma Osamor gave a testimony at the Presidential Election Petition Court on Friday (PEPC).
Osamor, the host of the “Democracy Today” show on Africa Independent Television (AIT), was called the “7th witness (PW 7)” for Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
Obi and LP are the petitioners in the CA/PEPC/03/2023 lawsuit disputing the outcome of President Bola Tinubu’s election.
Bola Tinubu, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) president, Kashim Shettima, vice president, and the All Progressives Congress are the respondents (APC).
During cross-examination by APC lawyer Abiodun Owonikoko, SAN, Osamor said INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu had stated that the results of the presidential election on February 25 will be broadcast live.
The fact that Yakubu broke his pledge to immediately upload the results from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System to the INEC Results Viewing page was one of the arguments made by the petitioners in support of their requests to have Bola Tinubu’s election as the president declared void.
Nonetheless, the petitioners’ video evidence presented before the PEPC included recordings of the INEC chairman promising Nigerians that technology will be used in the presidential election at various points in the films.
The court once again accepted a flash drive into evidence and aired a film of Mahmoud speaking in open court while underlining the use of BVAS and IReV during the elections.
Owonikoko questioned Yakubu about whether she knew the results would no longer be posted in real time a few days before the election.
She and her news organisation strongly emphasise covering events and programmes live.
In addition, Owonikoko brought up the subject and highlighted The Tribune’s February 23 article stating that real-time election results transmission would no longer be possible.
According to Osamor, the Tribune article may have been based on a reporter interview.
We won’t submit raw statistics of election results, INEC chairman, according to Tribune, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to Tribune, Yakubu reportedly made such a statement at a meeting with the foreign election monitors who paid him a visit at the commission.
However, The reporter emphasised that she was there throughout that time at all news conferences and the collation centre, notably on the day in question, since she covered the beat.
She said that Yakubu had not made this claim.
The five-member panel, presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani, put off the witness’s cross-examination and further consideration of the petition until Monday.
(NAN)
