A broadcast journalist for DAAR Communications Plc, Ijeoma Osamor appeared in court on Friday to testify at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
Osamor, the anchor of the program “Democracy Today” on Africa Independent Television (AIT), was called as the 7th witness for Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
Obi and LP are challenging the election that led to President Bola Tinubu’s win in a petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023.
During her cross-examination by the All Progressives Congress (APC) counsel, Abiodun Owonikoko, Osamor stated that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, promised to broadcast the results of the Feb. 25 presidential election live.
Obi and LP argue in their petition that Yakubu did not fulfill his promise to upload the real-time results sent to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal.
The petitioners submitted video evidence to the PEPC showing Yakubu at various times, promising to use technology during the presidential election.
The court accepted and played a clip from another flash drive, showing Yakubu discussing the deployment of BVAS and IReV for the elections.
When questioned by Owonikoko about Yakubu’s press statement a few days before the election, indicating that the results would no longer be uploaded in real-time, Osamor stated that her news organization focuses on live events and program coverage.
Owonikoko cited a report by The Tribune published on Feb. 23 that election results would no longer be transmitted in real-time.
However, Osamor suggested that the Tribune’s report could have been based on an interview with the reporter.
Osamor remained firm that, as a reporter present during the mentioned period at all press briefings and at the collation centre, she did not hear Yakubu make such a statement.
The five-member panel, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, postponed the hearing until Monday for further cross-examination of the witness and continuation of the petition hearing.
