Witnesses called by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in his petition against the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday gave evidence to support their allegations that the February 23 presidential election was rigged in Kaduna and Borno States in favor of the incumbent.
The witnesses alleged that agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) connived with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials to falsify figures, mostly at the local government and state levels. According to the witnesses, wrong scores were fraudulently credited by INEC officials to Buhari and APC, while scores of PDP and Atiku were deducted in some places.
They also told the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal hearing Atiku’s petition that thugs of the APC in connivance with security agents chased agents of the petitioners away for INEC to carry out the alleged manipulation of the results. They said in some instances where results submitted from the polling units and wards did not tally, the returning officer had to ask them to go back and correct it, leading to a lot of mutilation and cancellation in most of the results sheets.
Some of the witnesses said that while the security officials had ignored the complaints about the anomalies surrounding the conduct of the election, INEC officials told them to take their complaints and whatever grievances they have to the election tribunal.
Based on the above, the witnesses said they refused to sign copies of the results sheets, with the exception of Jafaru Ibrahim, who said he signed to “prove that he witnessed the anomalies.” Ibrahim, who claimed to be an agent of the petitioners at the local government level in Kaduna State, alleged that in spite of restriction on movement and the presence of security operatives, there were large movements of people in buses from one location to another to vote for the APC.
Ibrahim said at a point, they had to chase some of the imported voters from some areas in Zaria area of Kaduna State. He told the tribunal that he witnessed an instance of vote switching at the local government collation centre.
Another witness from Kaduna State, Major Yahaya Sikko, earlier in his evidence, had told the tribunal that wrong figures were accredited to Buhari and APC making him to refuse to sign the result sheet as required by law. He told the tribunal that the abnormalities affected the results released by the electoral umpire. The witness said in his presence results were doctored by APC agents with the full backing of security personnel.
Another witness from Kaduna, Abdulrahman Usman, who corroborated the claims of over voting and allocation of results to parties in Kaduna State, said he could not sign Form EC8A because the form was not made available to the agents of the petitioners as required by law.
In his own evidence, the Borno State Collation Officer, Nicholas Msheila, said he rejected most results in the 27 local government areas in the state because they were fraudulent. Though the witness said the results declared by INEC exceeded the number of accredited voters, he could not give the figure of the accredited voters. Msheila told the five-member tribunal that in all the results tendered in the state, there was evidence of mistake. “The state collation officer would ask them to go back and reconcile results before returning,” he added.
Also testifying, Adams Ali Sanni admitted that he did not sign results sheets as agents of the petitioners because results were altered in his presence while votes cast for Atiku and PDP were reduced also in his presence. He alleged that apart from unlawful cancellation of results, PDP agents were chased away by thugs of the APC to allow free falsification of results in favor of Buhari.
A witness from Bauchi State, Yau Yusuf, in attesting to claim of rigging, harassment and intimidation of voters, said election results were torn by a particular agent of the APC in the presence of INEC officials at INEC headquarters in Dass Local Government Area, yet nothing was done. He added that the results announced by INEC were a reproduced copy while the police took the torn copy with a promise to prosecute the perpetrator.
All witnesses from Borno stated that the results declared by INEC in Borno could not have been true because of the issue of insurgency and bomb blast that prevented many people from casting their votes. At the end of cross-examination of the 28 witnesses called by the petitioners on Thursday, the presiding justice of the five-member panel, Justice Mohammed Garba, adjourned hearings till Friday.
At Friday’s proceedings, the petitioners had called in eight witnesses in the morning session, who all testified in one way or another of various forms and degrees of malpractices they witnessed during the conduct of the February 23 presidential election that returned Buhari for a second term in office. But as the tribunal was about to proceed on its usual one hour break between, Atiku’s lead counsel, Dr. Levy Uzoukwu (SAN), informed the tribunal that he received several phone calls from the witnesses that they were attacked on their way to Abuja.
Uzoukwu said with the development, it would be difficult to continue with the day’s proceedings. He therefore prayed the tribunal to adjourn the hearing till Monday to enable them call more witnesses. The petitioners had said they would be calling about 400 witnesses to prove their claims that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in collaboration with the APC rigged the election in favor of President Buhari.
Following an agreement by all parties in the petition, the five-man panel, headed by Justice Mohammed Garba had allotted 10 days to the petitioners to call in their witnesses to testify in the petition. Before Friday’s hearing, the petitioners had already called in 28 witnesses from six states in addition to the plethora of documents tendered as exhibits in support of their case.
At Friday’s hearing, eight witnesses mainly from Borno and Yobe States gave evidence of how election results were transmitted into the server of INEC through a sort code provided by the electoral body. They further highlighted incidents of electoral malpractices which they claimed marred the February 23 poll. They specifically alleged that civil servants and farmers were threatened and intimidated to either vote for the APC or lose their jobs and farmlands.
The witness alleged that voters were mobilized to selected areas to cast their votes instead of their polling units and under the guise by APC of securing their lives. Sabo further alleged that PDP agents were chased away at the selected voting points after which ballot papers were freely handed over to APC agents to cast unlawful votes. Meanwhile, further hearing in the petition continues on Monday.
