The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja has resumed its hearing in the case of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar against the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Since Tuesday, 30 May, 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.
The first and third respondents — INEC and the APC — were physically represented in court. While APC was represented by its Director of Legal Services, INEC was represented by National Commissioner May Agbamuche.
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 petitioner on Monday, said he had four more witnesses to call. He already called 6 witnesses in previous sitting.
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The first witness was Dr. Abiye Sekibo from Rivers State. 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 was adopted by the court, as counsels raised no objection to it.
Under cross-examination, the petitioner’s counsel called for the results from Rivers State as declared by INEC.
The document was 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.
Under further cross-examination by counsel to the respondents, the witness told 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 said the results sheet was filled and signed by the PDP party agent in the unit, adding that he visited other polling units, about 20 of them, and that the polling units did not upload their results.
He asserted that the same thing happened in other units in the State.
The second witness was one Alhaji Mohammed Madaki, the current Chairman of the PDP in the FCT.
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Under cross-examination, the defense counsel asked the witness if it was his opinion that a winner must score 25 percent of the votes in the FCT, and he said no.
He told 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 answered in the negative.
Mr Abraham David, who was the third witness for the day agreed 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.
Ibrahim Mohammed Hamza, a resident of Lafia, Nasarawa State, was called to the stand as the fourth witness.
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Shown a copy of the INEC results from Nasarawa state, the witness identified 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.
The witness told 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.
The witness affirmed to the court that the results sheet was mutilated after he signed the document.
The court adjourned the hearing on this petition till Tuesday, 6 June for continuation of hearing.
The court proceeded on recess to reconvene at 2 pm for hearing of other cases.