Nicholas Usheliza, a State Collation Agent during the last presidential election told the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja Thursday that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, allotted results to over 200 polling units in Borno State even when there were no accredited voters in those places.
Usheliza, appeared before the tribunal as the 23rd witness, PW-23, for the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar in the February 23 presidential election.
Borno State, till the morning of the elections had reports of serial bomb blasts by Boko Haram terrorists which scared people from even coming out to vote.
“Over 200 polling units across Borno had zero accreditation voters even when results were credited for those units under insurgency,” he said.
Asked under cross-examination if he could remember all the units thathad no accreditation but got results, the witness said: “My lord how I can be able to remember all the 200 units?
Usheliza told the tribunal that the serial terror attacks prevented him from visiting some locations as a collation agent and further alleged that the total 919,786 result which INEC declared for Borno state, was well above the total number of accredited voters.
Asked if he moved round during the election, the witness said: “My lords, Borno is a peculiar state. It is not possible for me to move around because of the security situation.
“All the results that came into the collation center were brought in already collated. I was not there when the collation took place.
“With respect to all the LGAs we rejected their results, I have written to my party. At one point the State Collation Officer told me that if I was not comfortable with what was done that I should go to court”, he added.
He further recalled and alleged that the Borno State Collation Officer repeatedly directed the INEC officials that brought in the results to reconcile and ensure they tallied with the total number of returned votes.
While being cross examined, Usheliza told the tribunal that he also received reports from his party agents on what transpired at their various polling units, and consequently refused to sign the final copy of the presidential result.
“I may not exactly know the total number of accredited voters. All I know is that the number of accredited voters was less than the result,” he responded to a question on whether he could remember the total number of accredited voters.
“In the course of transferring figures from Local Government result sheet to the state, wrong computations were made,” he alleged, adding that “Because of that, the State Collation Officer kept telling them to go and work on the result sheet to ensure that it tallied with the result.”
According to him, “Every result tendered were mutilated. In other words, there was no result tendered that did not have calculation errors and I rejected them”.
He alleged that the mutilation of result occurred in 27 LGAs in Borno State and 311 Wards.
Asked by counsel to the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adeniyi Akintola, SAN, to state the figures that were illegally awarded to the affected polling units, the witness said: “I am not in a position to tell you what the figures are in these polling units.
“My problem is that some of these LG collation officers are PhD holders but they could not do simple arithmetic of plus and minus.
All the results had errors that the collation officer always asked them to go back and reconcile and come back”.
Asked to tell the tribunal what the presidential result for Borno ought to be, the witness said: “The correct results were the ones we forwarded to our party through the agents. I am not in a position to give the figures now, but if you want, you can tender the document”.
He was also asked if he was aware that as at December 1983, President Muhammadu Buhari was already the Head of State, the witness said:
“Yes, he was there through the barrel of the gun. He was there till 1985 when he was also overthrown by the barrel of the gun”.
Asked if he ever listened to President Buhari’s broadcasts, he said:
“As at that time, we were more interested in hearing the martial music.
“Yes I heard him, but at that time I don’t think it was time for me to understand what he was saying.
“Yes, those addresses were in English language”.
Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja
