The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has opened and closed its defence in the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja.

INEC’s lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, announced the closure of the first respondent’s case after the conclusion of the testimony of its sole witness, Dr Lawrence Bayode, a Deputy Director in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department of INEC.

Before calling on its witness, INEC tendered some documents which were admitted and marked as exhibits.

The witness told the court that he worked for INEC for 24 years.

Under cross-examination by the counsel for the petitioners, Patrick Ikwueto, SAN, the witness told the court that the testing of the software application for the election was carried out on February 4, 2023.

Bayode added that there was a report on the testing but it was not with him in the court.

The petitioners, however, tendered the e-transmission saver web and compliance form through the witness and were admitted and marked as evidence.

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The witness told the court that the pre-production test was carried out before the election.

When asked if the hard copy of the results would be different from the ones in the IreV, he said no.

He, however, added that anything could happen when sending the results from form EC8A to the IreV.

Bayode admitted that performance, functionality, and vulnerability tests were carried out before the election.

The witness agreed with Ikwueto that the report of the e-transmission application identifies remediation to be undertaken to resolve the high vulnerability identified in the report.

The witness said he didn’t know INEC’s web address where its materials are published.

In his cross-examination, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, counsel for President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, asked if foundation and authenticity of any election by INEC is rooted in forms EC8A and EC8E, to which the witness said yes.

The witness added that blurred documents downloaded from INEC IreV would not affect the physical results in form EC8A because the image there is not relevant.

He said the election ended with the recording, snapping, and sending to INEC’s IreV.

Answering questions from APC counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the witness said the physical results are used for computing the election final results.

He said the glitches that occurred on election day did not affect the collation of the results, adding that if what was downloaded from the IreV are not clear the physical results could also be obtained.

He told further told the court further that ECOWAS monitored the election but he does not have their report.

After the testimony of the sole witness, Mahmoud told the court that INEC’s defence in Obi and Labour Party’s petition is closed.

Olanipekun later told the court that Tinubu and Shetimma, who are listed as second and third respondents in the petition, will on Wednesday, July 5, open their defence.

The five-member panel presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani, therefore, adjourned until Wednesday for Tinubu and Shettima to open their defence.

The Star