Atiku’s Witnesses: Why We Signed Disputed Result Sheets

·       Obi tenders documents from six states to prove petition against Tinubu

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

Some witnesses for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in his petition against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have explained why they signed results of the February 25 presidential election despite contesting the figure declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The witnesses in their evidence before the Presidential Election Petition Court ( PREPEC) yesterday, disclosed that they had to signed the results even though they didn’t agree with it just to get a copy of the results for the party.

The first witness to give his evidence against the alleged malpractices during the presidential poll, Captain Joe Agada (rtd), a State Collation Officer in Kogi State, told the presidential court that INEC insisted that they would not be given a copy of the results unless they put their signature on it.

Agada in his witness statement he adopted before the court alleged that the presidential election in over 20 polling units he visited in parts of Kogi State was marred by irregularities such as BVAS, ballot papers and result sheets manipulation.

He said after observing the malpractices, most of the PDP agents in the state refused to signed the results because it did not tally with what happened at the various polling units.

While admitting that he did not sign results sheets in 2019 over similar alleged malpractices, he said this time around, “I was forced to sign which I protested because without signing I was going to be denied a copy to my party.”

Under cross examination by INEC’S lawyer, Abdullahi Aliyu, the witness claimed to have voted at Ogugu in Olamaboro but that he was allowed to move round to monitor the election because of the Special Election Duty Tag provided him by INEC.

Also under cross examination by Chief Akin Olujimi, counsel to Tinubu, the witness admitted that he did not put his grievances against the election in his witness statement.

Responding to APC’s lawyer, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, Agada admitted basing his report on the information supplied him by other agents of the party as well as his observations, adding that he spent between three to five minutes in most of the polling units he visited.

Similarly, the second witness, one Dr. Solarin Adekunle, also a Collation Officer from Ogun State corroborated Agada’s position but unlike Agada, told the PREPEC that he refused to sign the collated results in protest against the alleged electoral malpractices.

According to him, the elections results were inflated in favour of President Tinubu and the APC in most of the units he visited including the ones where their agents supervised.

The third witness, from Abia State, Mr. Uzoma Abonta told the court that the election ought to be nullified on account of so many irregularities, discrepancies and non-compliance with rules.

Abonta said that because INEC failed to electronically transmit elections results, what was declared did not reflect the genuine wish of the people of Abia State.

According to him, what INEC declared was quite different from the results in their own possession.

Earlier, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi and his party tendered documents from six states of the federation to prove their petitions against the election of Tinubu.

The petitioners at the resumed hearing yesterday, disclosed that they were challenging the election results in only 18 states of the federation.

The affected states are: Ribers, Benue, Cross River, Niger, Osun, and Ekiti.

Obi and LP had anchored their petitions on grounds amongst others that INEC violated its own regulations and guidelines in addition to manipulating the process in favour of Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The documents mainly Forms EC8A, which are election results from polling units were admitted and marked accordingly as exhibits by the Justice Haruna Tsammani five member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court ( PREPEC).

For Rivers State, the petitioners tendered EC8As from 15 LGAs instead of the initial 21 LGAs that was listed, while the results sheets from polling units in 23 LGAs was tendered from Benue State.

In Cross River State 18 EC8A results were also admitted and marked as Exhibits, while 23 in Niger State, 20 in Osun and 16 in Ekiti Local Government Areas, were also admitted in evidence.

Interestingly, INEC which issued the documents and certified them as genuine, joined other respondents to object to the admissibility of the said documents.

The other respondents are President Tinubu, his Vice, Kashim Shettima and the APC.

Meanwhile, hearing continues today.