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According to a statement on oath by a witness to be fielded by the All Progressives Congress, APC, before the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja, the electoral victory of President Bola Tinubu cannot be invalidated due to delayed upload of over 170,000 polling unit results to the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IReV.
The statement of the witness identified as ‘APC 1’ by the party was seen by THE WHISTLER ahead of commencement of INEC and APC defence of President Tinubu’s victory on July 3.
The non-disclosure of the name of the witness is allowed according to court procedures in Election Tribunals.
The witness’ statement is attached to the documents of the APC before the PEPC.
The APC is the political platform on whose platform Tinubu contested the February 25 presidential election.
The party is the fourth respondent in the petition filed by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s victory on the grounds of alleged corrupt practices and non-compliance with the electoral laws.
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But the APC witness told the court in his/her statement seen by THE WHISTLER that while IReV is the only designated and authorised platform by INEC for public display of the election results, the most important thing in the 2023 election is the Form EC8A (polling unit results) and not what is available on the public viewing portal.
“I know that there is no requirement in the Electoral law or regulation for the uploading of results/forms before the commencement of Collation of results at the Ward level.
Quoting the witness further, “Neither is the election invalidated if the uploaded forms are not available on the IREV before collation is done.
“The most important thing is for the Form EC8A to be signed by the presiding officer and given to willing party polling agents before being taken for collation, starting at ward level,” the witness said in his statement before the court.
The witness was of the view that the form EC8A and EC60E (different result sheets/electoral materials) are the building blocks for any collation of results and not the documents on IREV.
THE WHISTLER reports that the witness’ statement will be adopted when party Begins defending Tinubu’s victory at the Presidential court.
The witness, among others, will be cross-examined by the legal team of the petitioners and other respondents.
INEC will begin its defence of the 2023 Presidential Election by Monday, July 3.
