The National Collation Agent of the People’s Democratic Party PDP in the February 25 presidential election, Senator Dino Melaiye, on Friday told the Presidential Election Tribunal that collation errors by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led to the declaration of President Bola Tinubu as the winner.
Melaye informed the Court that he left the National Collation Centre at the International Conference Centre in Abuja when the alleged deliberate errors became unbearable and intolerable to him.
He testified as a Star Witness for former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar whose joint petition with PDP is seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s declaration as winner of the 2023 Presidential election.
Led in evidence-in-Chief by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN, the witness said that he refused to sign the final collated results so as not to be part of corruption and malpractices that allegedly engulfed the collation exercise.
Melaye insisted that the results which INEC acted upon to declare Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential election “was wrongly computed by INEC”, adding that, “I didn’t endorse it, because I don’t endorse a fraud.
He also told the court that besides himself, many agents of the PDP in the presidential election did not also sign the results at various levels.
While responding to questions from Tinubu’s lawyer, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, the witness argued that “failure of transmission of what has been recorded is an infringement of the law”.
He pointed out that the electronic transmission of results from the polling units to the IReV is a very important aspect of the election process, arguing that with IReV, the election circle cannot be said to have been completed.
“Result is transmitted from polling units before you move to the ward collation center”, he explained, adding that what was brought was at variance with what transpired at the state level.
Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Mr Peter Obi on Friday tendered additional video evidence to support claims that INEC assured of electronic transmission of results of the 2023 general elections.
Meanwhile, hearing in both petitions have been adjourned till Monday, June 19.
