What AIT reporter, Ijeoma Osamor, said before PEPC

By Edith Nwapi

Ms. Ijeoma Osamor, a DAAR Communications Plc broadcast journalist, testified before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Friday.

Osamor, who hosts the “Democracy Today” programme on Africa Independent Television (AIT), was summoned as the “7th witness (PW 7) for Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).”

Obi and LP are petitioners in the CA/PEPC/03/2023 petition contesting President Bola Tinubu’s election.

Respondents include INEC President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

When questioned by APC counsel, Abiodun Owonikoko, SAN, Osamor stated that INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated that the results of the Feb. 25 presidential election would be broadcast live.

One of the petitioners’ arguments for invalidating the president’s re-election was that Yakubu broke his pledge to transfer the results from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System to the INEC Results Viewing Portal in real time.

However, the petitioners’ video evidence before the PEPC included clips of the INEC chairman assuring Nigerians of the use of technology in the presidential election at various occasions.

The court put in evidence another flash drive and played a clip of Mahmoud delivering a speech underlining the deployment of BVAS and IReV for the elections in open court.

Then Owonikoko inquired if she was aware that Yakubu had stated in a press statement a few days before the election that the results would no longer be uploaded in real-time,

Her news organisation focuses on providing live coverage of events and programmes.

Owonikoko also highlighted the issue, citing a Feb. 23 Tribune article that stated election results would no longer be delivered in real time.

According to Osamor, the Tribune article could have been based on an interview with the reporter.

The Tribune posted a report on February 23 with the headline “We won’t transmit raw election results, INEC chairman.”

According to the Tribune, Yakubu stated this during a meeting with heads of international election observers who paid him a visit at the commission.

However, the reporter stated that she was there during the said period at all press briefings and at the collation centre, particularly on the said day, while covering the beat.

Yakubu, she claimed, did not make such a statement.

Meanwhile, the five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani postponed the cross-examination of the witness and further hearing of the case until Monday.

NAN