As Atiku Calls Six Witnesses to Prove Petition against Tinubu’s Election...
Few days into the hearing of allegations of malpractices and corruption that characterized the February 25 presidential election, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and his party have called six witnesses and tendered plethora of documentary evidences to prove how the electoral umpire allegedly manipulated the process that produced President Bola Tinubu. Alex Enumah reports.
At the end of pre-hearing a fortnight ago, only three out of the five petitioners challenging the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President were left following the withdrawal of two petitioners; the Action Alliances (AA) and the Action People’s Party (APP).
However, of the three remaining, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who scored the second highest votes cast in the February 25 presidential election, have been determined and deliberate in proving their petition against the outcome of the poll.
Within the first four days of trial, between May 30 and June 2, Atiku has tendered relevant documents especially those certified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) used in the conduct of the presidential election in addition to calling six witnesses who participated in the election beyond casting their votes.
Recall that the five-member panel of Justices of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PREPEC) led by Justice Haruna Tsammani had on May23, in a ruling consolidated the petitions of the Labour Party (LP), Allied People’s Movement (APM) and PDP on the grounds that there was great similarity amongst them and accordingly allotted time for hearing of each petition starting from May 30.
It was therefore no surprise that Atiku’s team led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, came with a Schedule of Documents it planned to tender before the court in proving his allegation that the election of February 25 was manipulated in favour of President Tinubu.
Among the bundle of documents brought before the court through one of Atiku’s lawyers, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, on the first day of trial were the final declaration of results sheet; summary of results from polling units by polling units; print out of the Bi-modal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS), from the 36 states of the federation and the FCT as well as the total number of registered voters and total number of PVCs collected from polling units by polling units in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
On the second day of trial, the petitioners brought additional documentary evidence which included mainly Forms EC8A, EC8E and EC40G. While Form EC8A is the sheet used for collection of results at the polling unit level, Form EC8E is used for declaration of final results and Form EC40G is the form where INEC inputs number of all polling units that were cancelled or voters that could not vote. I
It should be noted that all these documents apart from being INEC’s documents, the petitioners in line with the law ensured that they were duly certified as true copies by the commission. The documents were said to have been downloaded by INEC from its result viewing portal iREV and they pertained to election results from eight Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State, 23 from Kaduna State, 20 from Ogun and 23 from Kogi States respectively. Petitioners also tendered EC40G from Kaduna and EC8E from eight LGAs in Kaduna and some in Kogi.
Atiku through his lawyer prayed the court to deem the documents as read pursuant to provisions of paragraph 46(A) of the first schedule of the Electoral Act.
But INEC through one of its lawyers, Kemi Pinhero SAN, objected relating to Kogi except for those of five LGAs – Olamaboro, Ofu, Omala, Okehi, and Ajaokuta.
He predicated his objection on the grounds that except for the five LGAs the petitioners did not plead the other documents in their pleadings. However, INEC and the APC on their part hinted that they will be objecting to the admissibility of BVAS except for Kogi, Rivers and Sokoto at the appropriate time.
Having used Tuesday and Wednesday to present his documentary evidence, Atiku then used Thursday and Friday to call his witnesses who told the five-man panel of the presidential election court how they personally witnessed the rigging of the election and other malpractices that allegedly marred the February 25 presidential poll.
While some stated that they refused to sign the results sheets because of the malpractices, others who signed stated that they were compelled to do so by INEC.
Some other witnesses also claimed that they were chased away and some of their agents arrested by police to pave way for the changing of results at ward centers.
The first witness, one Captain Joe Agada (rtd), a State Collation Agent in Kogi claimed 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.