Lawrence Bayode, the one and only witness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Monday, in Atiku Abubakar’s petition contesting the election of President Bola Tinubu on 25 February said that the election won by Bola Tinubu was free and fair and in compliance with the electoral act.
INEC had entered two witnesses in the case but only Bayode appeared after which it closed its defence against Atiku’s petition.
Bayode ,an Assistant Director in charge of ICT in INEC told the court on cross examination that photographic copies of Polling Units results ” captured on BVAS whether transmitted manually or electronically does not affect the integrity of an election “
He said that the ‘ glitch on the day of the presidential election did not affect the actual scores of the candidates at the election as results of each candidate remained the same”
The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar is urging the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to set aside Mr Tinubu’s victory on account of gross non-compliance with Nigeria’s electoral laws in the conduct of the presidential poll.
Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner of the election by INEC on March 1.
Tinubu garnered 8,794,726 votes to beat Atiku, who came second in the race with 6,984,520 votes.
The president is also being challenged by the third leading candidate, Peter Obi of the Labour party over the credibility of the election in the transmission of results.
