Ebun Francia|
Mr Peter Uzioma Obi, the second witness called by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Monday, said that the results of February 23, 2019, presidential election were transmitted electronically.
According to Obi, who said he functioned as Registration Area Technician at a ward level in Rivers State during the election, said the Independent National Electoral Commission trained him and others to transmit the results of the poll.
Obi stated this while being cross-examined by INEC’s lawyer, Yunus Usman (SAN).
“You are not supposed to transmit results because you are not a presiding officer,” Usman asked.
Obi responded, “You are wrong sir. INEC trained us to transmit results. I was not a presiding officer. I was not a polling agent. I was a registration area technician appointed by INEC. I was trained by INEC.”
When asked by Chief Wole Olanipekun about INEC guidelines for the election, Obi said he was not aware of the guidelines used by the INEC, but said he issued a specific guidelines booklet for his roles as a RATECH.
“I was a RATECH in charge of the use of card reader,” he said.
Obi further stated that he operated at the ward level with the Local Government Technician and the State Technician as his superiors and
was not stationed at any polling unit but visited areas where his attention was needed during the election.
The witness under cross-examination by APC’s lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), stated that it was not entirely correct to say that it was the duty of the Presiding Officer “to do accreditation, verification authentication, and collation at the Poling Units.”
He said, “You are not entirely correct sir, because we were told at the training that the Assistant Polling Officer 1, was in charge of accreditation.”
“I did not serve as APO1 and I did not serve as the Presiding Officer.”
“I have a letter to show that I was shortlisted, ” he said, in response to Fagbemi’s suggestion that he acted on his own.
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