PDP Witness Admits Party Inflated Nasarawa Guber Results

Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) prosecution witness, Ayiwulu Baba Ayiwulu, yesterday admitted that his party inflated the results of the March 18, 2023, governorship election in Nasarawa State.

The prosecution witness made the confirmation when he appeared to give testimony before the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Lafia, the state capital.

Answering questions during cross-examination by the respondents’ counsel, Adebayo Adelodu (SAN) for Governor Abdullahi Sule; Ishaka Muddie Dikko (SAN) for INEC, and Mathew Burkah (SAN) for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the last PDP witness, Ayiwulu, told the tribunal that he served as the State Collation Agent during the March 18 governorship election.

He admitted that his party inflated the figures of the election results and depleted that of the APC.

 Ayiwulu affirmed that his party, the PDP inflated the results in Ashige, Ciroma and Gayam electoral wards all in Lafia LGA, as well as Abuni and Azara Wards in Awe LGA of the state.

The PDP witness particularly revealed that APC scored 293 in Polling Unit 022, but depleted the figure to 45 while PDP got 73 but he recorded 144, just as APC pulled 169 but recorded 167, as well as recorded 67 instead of 61 for PDP in form EC8 across Gayam, Ciroma, Kanje/Abuni, Azara and Ashige electoral wards, attributing the anomaly to human error.

Earlier, the prosecution lead counsel, Jibrin Samuel Okutepa (SAN), tendered two more documents which were produced by the state INEC Chief Engineer of the ICT Department, Godwin Udong Idioh, but the respondents’ counsel all objected to the admissibility of the documents.

Okutepa, thereafter, applied to close their case, an application that was granted by the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi.

Consequently, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi adjourned the hearing to today for the respondents to open their defence.