The Rivers State presidential election coordinator for the Peoples Democratic Party, Abiye Sekibo, on Monday alleged infringement on the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 on the use of electronic transmission of results.
Sekibo appeared at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja as a witness in aid of the PDP’s petition challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
The witness told the court during cross-examination by counsel for Tinubu, Akin Olujimi (SAN), that the results from polling units across Rivers State were not captured on the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System.
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He said, “All the polling units I went to, they could not upload the results.”
He however admitted that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, did not poll up to 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory.
Also, the Nassarawa State collation officer for the PDP, Ibrahim Hamza, alleged electoral malpractices in the state.
Hamza told the court that he signed the presidential poll results under duress.
He said, “Due process was not followed…I had to sign to obtain a copy of the results because there was this intimidation that if I did not sign, I would not be given the result. I signed it under duress.”
Meanwhile, the court admitted the last batch of the results from various local government areas which the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi, sought to tender in evidence in aid of their petition also challenging Tinubu’s victory.
The documents admitted from the local government areas of eight states formed the last batch in the EC8A series tendered by the LP and Obi before the court.
The states where the exhibits came from are Ebonyi, Nassarawa, Delta, Kaduna, Imo, Ondo, Kogi and Sokoto.
Though the APC and Tinubu’s legal teams opposed the admissibility of the exhibits, the five-man panel of the PEPC headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the bundle of documents from all eight states tendered and marked them as exhibits in the petition by Obi and LP.
The court, thereafter, adjourned further hearing in the petitions till Tuesday (today).
(Punch)
