Nasarawa guber: APC, Engineer Sule, continue battle to regain stolen votes

…as INEC counsel rejects purported IREV results

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, have continued with the battle to regain their stolen votes, with more witnesses appearing before the governorship election petition tribunal, to further expose how the APC and Engineer Sule were shortchanged during the March 18th gubernatorial election.

At the resumed sitting of the tribunal on Friday, Engineer Sule, being the second respondent in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its gubernatorial candidate, David Ombugadu, brought additional seven witnesses to testify on oath before the tribunal.

All the seven witnesses testified that, the APC and Engineer Sule were shortchanged, with the votes scored by the APC at the mentioned polling units reduced while being entered on Form EC8B, which is the ward collation results.

Led by the Dr. Mubarak Adekilekun, appearing for the second respondent, all the witnesses who came from Keffi, Nasarawa and Toto Local Government Areas, confirmed widespread non-collation of votes scored by the APC, as well as the inflation of votes accruing to the PDP.

Mukthar Ibrahim, a civil servant from Keffi, confirmed before the tribunal that the APC was shortchanged in Halilu Rahaman Primary School with Polling Unit Code 012, EW36, because his party’s results was reduced at the point of entry on Form EC8B, EW52, which is the ward collation result.

According to Ibrahim, while APC scored 229 votes and PDP got 1 vote at the polling unit, at the ward collation centre it was recorded that APC got 224 while PDD has 6.

Also testifying, Habibu Ahmed Sarki, confirmed that the APC was short in his Elaita Primary School polling unit with Code 010, in Ara II ward of Nasarawa Local Government Area.

Led by the counsel to APC, Mathew Burkah, the witness confirmed that in Elaita Primary School with Polling Unit Code 010, RW25, APC scored 127, while PDP has 31. However, to his utmost surprise, while entering same results at the Ara II electoral ward, RW45, the APC was recorded to have scored 49 votes, while the PDP got 109.

Similarly, Ibrahim Danlami Umar, Abdulkadir Adamu Jibrin, Iduwa Sabo and Kaika Aminu Egah, all testified on oath, exposing how the APC was shortchanged at mentioned polling units.

While Umar confirmed that results recorded on EC8A at his Kwatan Guto Emir of Agatu Palace polling unit 008, RW22, where APC scored 141 votes and PDP 5, is completely at variance with the results recorded on Form EC8B at Guto/Aisa electoral ward, EW43, where it was said APC scored 83, while PDP got 63.

Abdulkadir Adamu Jibrin, on his part, confirmed that results from Federal Low Cost with Polling Unit Code 007, RW29, Behind Maikankan with Polling Unit Code 012, RW30 and Ahmadiyya Commnity School with Polling Unit Code 023, RW30, all in Nasarawa North electoral ward in Nasarawa Local Government Area, there was non-collation of APC results.

He confirmed that APC scored 192 votes at the Behind Maikankan polling unit but only 156 votes was entered on Form EC8B, EW47. PDP got 17 at the polling unit but was recorded to have scored 53.

Highpoint of the proceeding was when lead counsel to the petitioners, Jibrin Samuel Okutekpa, sought to tender certified true copies of Form EC8As for polling units 007 and 012, which was vehemently objected to by the lead counsels to the first, second and third respondents but which was subsequently admitted as evidence by the tribunal.

In his submission on the matter, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ishiaka Mudi Dikko, while objecting to the admissibility of the document, expressed strong reservations on its authenticity, saying categorically that the document being tendered by the petitioners were not uploaded from IREV.

Speaking further on the matter, Adekilekun, counsel for Engineer Sule, confirmed that the documents tendered before the tribunal by the petitioners were never on IREV but mere concoction.

“The purported IREV results are not at all on IREV. We checked them this afternoon but couldn’t find them on IREV. These are merely concocted documents,” he stated.

On his part, counsel to the APC, Mathew Burkah, confirmed from one of the witnesses that on March 18th, 2023, two separate elections took place namely the House of Assembly and Governorship election.

Burkah objected to the admissibility of the documents tendered by the petitioners because, according to him, “I can see House of Assembly written at one corner” of the document.

All the first, second and third respondents said they will advance further reasons for their objection in their written addresses.

Earlier, counsel to the second respondent, tendered certified true copies of two more results for Shege Ward I, in Toto Local Government Area and EC8B for Gidan Hausa II, as well as receipts of payments for the CTCs.

After exhausting all the witnesses scheduled to appear before the tribunal, counsel for the second respondent, appealed for the court to adjourn, following which Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Ezekiel Oyeyemi Ajayi, adjourned proceedings to Saturday, August 26.