BREAKING: What Atiku’s Witnesses Told Tribunal Today

BREAKING: What Atiku’s Witnesses Told Tribunal Today

Since Tuesday, May 30, the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) has been hearing petitions challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu (All Progressives Congress) in the February 25 presidential election.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi; and the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) are the petitioners.

On the other hand, the respondents include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Vice-President Kashim Shettima, and the APC.

According to results declared by INEC, Tinubu, 71, got 8,794,726 votes, 76-year-old Atiku polled 6,984,520 votes and Obi, 61, finished the race with 6,101,533.

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This was the first presidential election to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) — an electronic system for accrediting voters before voting and transmitting results to the INEC server — as well as the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

9:28 am: The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja resumes its hearing in the case of the presidential candidate of the PDP and Atiku Abubakar vs INEC, Bola Tinubu/Shettima and the APC.

The first and third respondents — INEC and the APC — are physically represented in court. While the APC is represented by its Director of Legal Services, INEC is represented by National Commissioner May Agbamuche.

Lawyers to both parties announce their presence.

On Friday, the PDP presented three additional witnesses, who were cross-examined by the counsel to the respondents before the matter was adjourned to today.

The hearing for today continues with witnesses presentation. The petitioner says he has four more witnesses to call. He already called 6 witnesses in previous sitting.

The first witness for the day is one doctor Abiye Sekibo of Rivers State, a medical doctor and a businessman.

9:53 am: The witness presented to the tribunal his letter of appointment by the PDP to serve as the Rivers State collation officer for the party. The letter is adopted by the court, as counsels raised no objection to it.

9:57 am: Under cross-examination, the petitioner’s counsel calls for the results from Rivers State as declared by INEC. The document is presented to the witness to identify if it contained the same results declared by INEC on the day of election, to which the witness answers in the affirmative.

10:06 am: Under further cross-examination by counsel to the respondents, the witness tells the court he voted during the presidential election in Rivers State, and waited for about 10 minutes before leaving the polling units, but came back to the unit during the counting.

He says the results sheet was filled and signed by the PDP party agent in the unit. He also says he visited other polling units, about 20 of them, and that the polling units did not upload their results. He asserts that the same thing happened in other units in the state.

10:25 am: The witness tells the court that he was not the one who signed the results sheet.

10:37 am: The second witness for the day is one Alhaji Mohammed Madaki, the current Chairman of the PDP in the FCT. As in the case with the previous witness, the prosecuting counsel calls for the results sheet of the presidential election in the FCT, which the witness identifies.

10:48 am: Under cross-examination, the defense counsel asks the witness if it is his opinion that a winner must score 25 percent of the votes in the FCT, and he says no.

He tells the court that his candidate Atiku Abubakar did not score 25 percent of votes in the FCT. Asked if by that calculation, Atiku qualifies to be returned as the winner of the election, the witness answers in the negative.

11:19 am: A third witness for the day is Mr Abraham David, also a resident of the FCT.

The witness agrees that Atiku did not score 25 percent of votes in the FCT. He however insists that Atiku is entitled to be returned as the winner of that election, even though he did not score the 25 percent in the FCT.

11:55 am: The fourth witness is one Ibrahim Mohammed Hamza, a resident of Lafia, Nasarawa State.

Shown a copy of the INEC results from Nasarawa state, the witness identifies his signature on the document, but the results sheet he signed during the exercise did not have cancellations like the one presented to him now.

11:58 am: The witness tells the court that the BVAS failed at the point when results were to be uploaded.

12:04 pm: The witness tells the court that he signed the results under duress to secure a copy of the results sheet, even though he did not state this in his statement on oath.

12:29 pm: The witness affirms to the court that the results sheet was mutilated after he signed the document.

12:31 pm: The court has adjourned hearing on this petition till Tuesday, June 6 for continuation of hearing.

The court proceeds on recess to reconvene at 2 pm for hearing of other cases.