JUST IN: Amazon Staff Testifies In Peter Obi’s Case Against Tinubu, INEC

On Monday, the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi presented a subpoenaed witness from Amazon Web Services, AWS, to prove to the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja that electronic transmission of the February 25 presidential election results was not prevented by “technical glitches” as claimed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Obi’s legal team represented by I. Ikweto SAN, called witness Clarita Mpeh Ogah to give evidence as its subpoenaed witness (PW7).

But INEC counsel, A.B Mahmoud SAN, told the court that he was given the witness disposition, including several reports, shortly before commencement of proceedings and would need time to study it.

He said he will only be in a position to cross examine the witness as from tomorrow.

Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun SAN, said he was in the same predicament with INEC but wants the court to adjourn cross-examination till Tuesday.

APC lawyer, Charles Uwesoye SAN, aligned with Olanipekun’s submission, saying that he will need time to cross-examine the “mysterious” document from Obi.

“It will be neater to take the witness evidence in chief today, and cross examination will take place, Tuesday,” the panel ruled.

Ogah, who lives in Abuja and Maryland, United States, said she’s a cloud engineer and architect.

According to her, she currently works with a tech company, Amazon Web Services Incorporated, AWS.

Recall that INEC’s lawyer, A.B. Mahmoud SAN, during one of the cross-examination of Obi’s witnesses, confirmed that the electoral umpire engaged AWS services for the purpose of securing election results.

But Olanipekun alongside other respondents raised objections against the witness but said they would reserve it till their final address.

The panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani noted the assertions by parties and asked the witness to go ahead.

She also adopted her resume and employment verification letter as an employee of AWS.

Again, INEC’s lawyer, Mahmoud, said he has no objection to the witness curriculum vitae “but I do have objection to the so called letter of employment with AWS.”

The lawyers representing Tinubu and APC objected to the tendering of the witnesses’ resume and letter of employment.

But the panel admitted her official documents including her reports as Peter Obi’s evidence.

After that, the legal team of Peter Obi and that of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC took a swipe at each other, again, over inability of the former to access electoral documents domiciled with the electoral umpire.

THE WHISTLER reports that INEC and Obi’s legal team have been at loggerheads over access to certified true copies of electoral materials, since the Presidential Election Petition Court commenced sitting on May 30.

Obi’s lawyer, J.S Okutepa SAN, told the court that INEC is frustrating his case because he has severally written to them and served them with subpoenas for all the electoral documents they require to prove their case but the electoral umpire “refused” to give it to the legal team despite paying for most of them.

He added in open court that INEC rejected copies of subpoena served on them knowing full well that “this is a proceedings that is time bound.”

“I have done everything humanly possible. This afternoon, INEC released a few IREV reports from Lagos (7LGAs) and Gombe(2 LGAs) states. These documents were certified on May 29,” Okutepa said.

But INEC’s lawyer, A.B Mahmoud SAN, denied it saying no new letter was brought to his attention and it is only one letter he received from Obi’s lead counsel, Livy Uzoukwu SAN, so far.

“I received a letter from Livy Uzoukwu dated May 15 and never saw any other one,” Mahmoud said, adding that INEC never denied them any documents and that documents that have been tendered by Obi so far came from INEC.

Amid the counter accusations between the two, the counsel for Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun SAN, told the court that he will meet with lawyers representing INEC and Obi and see how they can resolve their issues.

Meanwhile, the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani told the legal team of INEC and Obi to cooperate with each other for the seamless conduct of proceedings.

Subsequently, the court adjourned the petition to Tuesday for continuation of hearing.

Recall that last week Friday, a professor of Mathematics at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka Anambra State, Eric Ofoedu had in a statement on oath which was admitted before the PEPC after being lead to give his evidence in chief by the lawyer representing the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN, alleged that when the 18,088 blurred results he downloaded from IREV was matched with Form EC8As (polling unit results) given to Labour Party agents at the affected PUs, votes of 2,565,269 accredited voters were not reflected in the final results announced by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Yakubu Mahmood.