INEC chair, Mahmood Yakubu, to testify in Atiku’s suit challenging Tinubu’s victory

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, will testify Thursday before the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja.

Mr. Yakubu will testify in Atiku Abubakar’s petition challenging President Bola Tinubu’s 25 February presidential victory.

Atiku, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, accused INEC and APC leader Tinubu of poll manipulation.

On Tuesday, his lead counsel, Chris Uche, informed the five-member court panel chaired by Haruna Tsammani that Mr. Yakubu would appear on Thursday.

Atiku’s legal team subpoenaed Mr. Yakubu to testify on the disputed election.
He must also provide sensitive electoral documents to support the petitioner.

Mr Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed INEC, Mr Tinubu, and APC’s legal teams of Mr Yakubu’s Thursday appearance to avoid any delays.

Atiku calls first star witness

After calling 18 witnesses to testify for the petitioner, Mr Uche, on Tuesday, called his client’s first star witness.

The witness, Alex Ter, a lawyer and former Attorney General of Benue State, in his testimony, alleged that the February presidential poll was fraught with widespread irregularities as it was conducted in disregard of the Electoral Act, 2022.

In his witness statement on oath, Mr Ter said he was the national coordinator Situation Room for the PDP during the February 25 presidential election in Abuja.

He presented three video clips featuring INEC chair Mr Yakubu and INEC’s Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, who both pledged that the electoral umpire would electronically transmit the election results.

The third video concerned the European Union Election Observer Mission, which was admitted as an exhibit by the court.

Also, the court admitted the guidelines for election officers 2022 and the manual for election guidelines 2023 as exhibits.

Mr Ter also tendered screenshots of the INEC IReV portal.

Despite Mr Tinubu and APC’s objections to the admissibility of the documents, the court admitted the videos played in court.