June 10, (THEWILL) – The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), Abuja, on Saturday, struck out an application seeking to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), regarding its claim that ‘technological glitches’ prevented electronic transmission of the 2023 presidential election results.
The candidate of the Labour party (LP) in the February 25 presidential election, Peter Obi, through his lawyer, P. I Ekweto (SAN), had filed an interrogatory application, which among others, wanted INEC to disclose the “time the technological glitches was fixed and or repaired? The exact time of the occurrence of the technical glitch which prevented the e-transmission of the results of the Presidential Election on 25th February 2023? and who restored the technical glitches?”
Obi urged the court to grant his application in the interest of justice.
Both INEC and the All Progressives Congress (APC) had objected to the application, praying the court to dismiss it.
However, in its ruling on Saturday, a 5-member panel of the PEPC, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, held that for a motion to be moved or heard after its pre-hearing session, the petitioner must place before it the “extreme circumstances” that made him to file the application.
“This court is bound by record on proceedings. The law is established that it is the duty of a party to call the attention of the court over the pendency of an application.
“Accordingly, this application fails and is accordingly struck out”, Justice Tsammani ruled.
