The first Petition Witness (PW9) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has told the Election Petition Court that Atiku didn’t secure 25% of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the 2023 Presidential Election.
The witness, Abraham David of Karmajiji community in the FCT, while under cross-examination, confirmed that the PDP candidate who didn’t score 25% votes, didn’t qualify to be declared the president of Nigeria.
However, the businessman posited that for the fact that Ahmed Bola Tinubu who also didn’t score up to 25% votes could be returned as the president, Atiku Abubakar can also be returned as the winner.
Led by the Counsel to Tinubu, Akin Olujimi SAN, the witness, who said he visited 15 polling units out of the 2,822 polling units in FCT, maintained that unlawful votes were collated by the All Progressive Congress (APC) agents, but didn’t state the figures in his statement on oath.
The witness, who claimed to be FCT Collation Officer for PDP, alleged that ballot papers and result sheets were manipulated by compromised Electoral officers in collusion with agents of other political parties.
Also testifying, was a petition witness number 10(PW10), Ibrahim Mohammed Hamza of Lafia Nasarawa State.
Led in evidence by Atiku’s lead counsel, Akin Olujimi SAN, the witness, who said he is a Human Resources Consultant, identified Form EC8A 25, which is a collated result sheet from Nasarawa State.
However, the witness maintained he signed clean documents while the documents he can identify with his signature were altered with cancellations.
“My lords, the documents I signed had no cancellations. They must have altered the results. The cancellation was made after I endorsed my signature.”
The Nasarawa State collation officer also maintained that the election results were not uploaded in most of the 3,256 polling units across the state, adding that he signed the result sheets under duress.
“At the time of uploading the results, the system failed in most of the polling units across the state.
“I signed the results sheet under duress because I needed a copy to submit at the state level,” he testified
So far, Atiku and his party have called 10 witnesses out of 100 witnesses lined up to prove their petition seeking to sack Bola Tinubu from Office.
The proceeding continues tomorrow, the 6th of June.
