The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has demanded immediate compliance by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC), with court order on access, inspection and exmaination of electoral materials.
The PDP also on Friday, demanded immediate resignation of the INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu.
The party also called on the Police, DSS to investigate INEC chairman for alleged electoral offences, as well as international sanctions for undermining democracy.
The party reviewed the widely-condemned infractions, brazen violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and criminal manipulation and alteration of election results by the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to subvert the Will of Nigerians in the February 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
The PDP also said that it had reviewed the latest scheme by INEC to reconfigure the BVAS devices, erase and destroy evidence of its manipulation of the Presidential election, deny Nigerians and political parties, especially our Party and Candidate access to relevant information required to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
“From all indications, the INEC under Mahmood Yakubu was compromised to rig the election by brazenly violating the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 as well as INEC’s Regulations, Guidelines and Manual issued for the election.
“It is also obvious that the Commission under Mahmood Yakubu deliberately sabotaged the uploading and transmission of results directly from the Polling Units to give room for the criminal mutilation, alteration and switching of election results across the nation in favour of the APC as now abundantly exposed in the pictorial and video evidence of compromised results sheets in many parts of the Country,” it said.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunabga, stated that “evidence abounds in States across the six Geo-Political Zones of the Country where winning figures lawfully scored by the PDP were switched in favour of the APC; where results sheet from polling centers won by the PDP were destroyed and replaced with fake results sheets in which APC was allocated unearned winning figures.
“This further explains why the INEC Chairman rushed to announce and declare manipulated results that were not transmitted directly from the Polling Units to INEC’s Server/Website and ignored the objections and complaints raised during the collation of results in deliberate violation of the provisions of Section 64 (4) (a) and (b), 64 (6) (a)-(d), and 65 (1) (c) of the Electoral Act. 2022.
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“For emphasis while Section 64 (4) (a) and (b) expressly require the INEC Chairman as the Chief Returning Officer to announce only results that were transmitted directly from the Polling Units, Sections 64 (6) (a)-(d) and 65 (1) (c) compel INEC, in the case of disputes, complaints or objections regarding a collated result or the result of an election from any Polling Unit, to take steps including the review of collation where they are made contrary to the provisions of the Law, Regulations, Guidelines and Manual issued for the election.
“By flagrantly violating these provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 as well as INEC’s Regulations, Guidelines and Manual for the election, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu is not only culpable of serious electoral offence but also betrayed, thrashed and threw overboard the trust, confidence and hope Nigerians reposed in him and the Electoral Commission to deliver a free, fair and credible election in the country.”
Joe-Kyari Gadzama, the lead counsel of the Atiku Abubakar’s Legal Team in a letter to the INEC Chairman demanded immediate compliance with the court order of 3 March, 2023 granting access to Atiku Abubakar for access, inspection and examination of electoral materials of the February 25 presidential election.
Gadzama in the letter, said he wrote as the Lead Counsel to Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party, who participated in the 2023 Presidential Election which held on 25 February 2023, and on whose behalf we write in respect of the above caption.
He recalled that the Court of Appeal, presided over by Justice Shagbaor Ikyegh, JCA sitting in Abuja, granted orders on 3 March 2023 in favour of Atiku Abubakar for access to the materials.
“The Court expressly directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow and grant access to our Clients and their representatives to inspect, scan, make copies, forensically audit and obtain certified true copies (CTC) of all electoral materials which were used in the conduct of the Presidential Election.
“The Court in Order no. 6 specifically allowed our Clients to carry out forensic examination/analysis of the BVAS machines/devices and all information stored in the server/IREV/backend/clouds, amongst others. The enrolled Court Order was duly and promptly served on the Commission on the same 3 March 2023 by the Court bailiff accompanied by our Clients’ representatives.”
Gadzama attached the acknowledged copy of the Court Order for ease of reference, adding that “It is our Clients’ brief that upon service of the Order, they immediately Page 2 of 3 requested for a date to follow up and they were asked to return on 6 March 2023.
“On 6 March, our Clients’ representatives led by Adedamola Fanokun, Esq (office of the PDP National Legal Adviser) returned to the Commission ready to commence inspection, examination and obtaining of the electoral materials as ordered by the Court but they were informed at the Commission’s legal registry that there was no instruction yet from the Commission on the Court Order.
“Our Clients further requested audience with the Commission’s Director of Litigation to accelerate the process but they were not allowed as they were told by the Registry staff that the Director was in a meeting. Sadly, these and other efforts by our Clients have yielded no result.”
He said that it was disturbing that despite service of the Court Order on the Commission since 3 March 2023, the Commission is yet to allow their Clients and their representatives to access, inspect and/or obtain the needed electoral materials as ordered by the Court despite repeated visits to the Commission and follow-up in respect thereof.
“No doubt, the Commission is bound by the orders of the Court and cannot choose if, when and/or how to comply with same.
“The unqualified obligation of the Commission, which of course includes INEC officials, is to unhesitatingly comply and give effect to the subsisting order of Court; there is no discretion to exercise here,” he said.
According to him, “In the circumstances, we hereby demand that the Commission should immediately comply with the subsisting orders of Court and in particular, we reiterate the following demands on behalf of our Clients:
1) Daily access to all polling documents, voters register, ballot papers and electoral forms/materials for purposes of scanning, forensic audit, expert examination and inspection;
2) Daily access to the BVAS machines/devices and server/IREV/backend/clouds for purposes of forensic examination and analysis; and
3) CTCs of all BVAS accreditation reports, forms EC40A, EC8A, EC8AVP, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E and all other electoral forms/materials on a State by State basis. We hope that our demand will receive the prompt positive action that it requires as we will continue to visit the Commission on a daily basis Page 3 of 3 for the exercise as set out above in line with the subsisting order of the Court. Thank you in anticipation of your urgent positive action in this regard as time is really of the essence.”
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