Joe Agada, a retired military personnel and the first witness of Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) said he was forced to sign voting results in Kogi state during the February 25 presidential election.
Agada who served as the State Collation Agent of the PDP in Kogi State, is among the first set of witnesses that testified before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja.
Atiku and his party are challenging the declaration of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the presidential contest held on February 25.
The witness told the court that he was forced to sign the result of the presidential election by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
According to him, the INEC officials, vowed not to give him a duplicate copy of the result sheet to take back to his party, unless he signed the document.
Led in evidence by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, the witness, maintained that the result of the presidential election in Kogi State was rigged.
He told the court that in over 20 polling units he visited, he observed how the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines, were manipulated.
He said: “My lords, apart from where I voted, which was at Ogene- Oforachi village in Ogugu Ward in Kogi State, I also served as my party’s State Collation Agent.
“I had a tag and a vehicle with a sticker that identified me as being on election duty. The exemption tag which was issued to me by INEC, allowed me to move around on the election day.
“I had the opportunity of visiting some highlighted polling units in my LGA, even though I did not visit all the polling units.”
While being cross-examined by counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mr. Abdullahi Aliyu, SAN, the witness said it would not be correct to say that he observed all the manipulations that took place in Kogi state during the election.
“My lords, I am a witness of truth. I did not visit all the polling units but I was present when BVAS in over 20 polling units were being manipulated across the two Senatorial Districts that I visited.
“I may not be exact, but there is nothing less than 3,500 polling units in Kogi State.
“I spent between three to five minutes in each of the polling units that I visited,” the witness added.
Asked if agents of the PDP signed the result sheets, the witness, said: “Yes, our agents signed the Forms EC8A, EC8B and EC8C.
“But they were forced to sign the results, especially in Kogi state, because INEC said they would not give us copies unless we signed.”
Answering questions from one of the lawyers that appeared for President Tinubu, Akin Olujinmi, SAN, the witness, said the PDP had agents in all the polling units in the state.
Asked if as the State Collation Agent of the PDP, he signed the result sheet, he said: “My lords, I was forced to sign the state collection result because without signing, they said they would deny me a copy to take to my party.
“I thereafter protested and also wrote a petition to INEC,” the witness told the court, even as he admitted that he served as State Collation Agent for the PDP in 2015 and also appeared as a witness in the 2019 presidential election dispute between Atiku and former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“In 2015, I refused to sign the result. But at that time, INEC did not deny me a copy to take to my party. But this year, the INEC man insisted that they would not give me a copy unless I signed the result,” Capt. Agada, retd, who told the court that he is a Pharmacist by training, added.
Shortly after he was discharged from the witness box, the State Collation Agent of the PDP in Ogun State, Solarin Sunday Adekunle, mounted the box and gave his evidence.
Adekunle, who identified himself as an Accountant, equally accused INEC of manipulating the results of the presidential election in Ogun State.
He said: “My lords, I was there when results were being fabricated in my polling unit at Abeokuta and other units that I visited.
“There are about 5,040 polling units in the state, with 19 of them situated in my community.
“There are some polling units that INEC officers did not write results till they got to the Ward Collation Center. I filed that report to my party.
“I spent a minimum of 10 minutes in each of the polling units that I visited,” the witness added.
Unlike the first witness, Adekunle told the court that he refused to sign the state-collated results of the presidential election.
While being cross-examined by counsel for the respondents, the witness said he had after the election, analyzed the results of the presidential poll.
Asked if it was during the said analysis that he found that there was intimidation and harassment of voters, the witness said: “I don’t understand the question. But it was from my observations from the field and from reports that were filed in by our agents.”
However, the witness admitted before the court that he did not mention in his statement on oath that there was intimidation of voters “because they were too many.”
Answering questions from counsel for the APC, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the witness, confirmed that State Returning Officer announced a total of 341, 554 votes for the APC and 123, 831 votes for PDP.
Asked if he granted an interview to a television station, disclosing that his party sharedN10,0000 recharge vouchers with voters, the witness said: “Yes I did, but it had nothing to do with the presidential election.”
The third witness, PW-3, Uzoma Nkem Abonta, who is a serving member of the National Assembly and a lawyer, told the court that he served as PDP’s State Collation Agent in Abia state.
He told the court that he received reports from agents of the party that monitored the presidential election in all the 17 Local Government Areas in Abia state.
He told the court that President Tinubu was wrongly declared the winner of the presidential election.
Asked if he was aware that Tinubu did not secure 25 percent votes in Abia state, the witness, said: “I deposed in my statement that the 1st respondent (INEC) entered wrong and invalid results in favour of the 2nd respondent (Tinubu).
“We are challenging what INEC declared. That is why we are here. I deposed in my statement that because INEC failed to electronically transmit the results of the election, we could not reconcile the results we got from the polling units with what INEC declared.
“There were lots of discrepancies. It did not tally at all. There were too many material differences in results that INEC declared and data that was contained in the BVAS,” the witness added.
The witness told the court that what was contained in the statement he deposed on oath, “was what I saw, what I noticed, what played out at the Collation Center, as well as reports that came to me from the agents.”
Asked how he was able to observe what happened in the 17 LGAs of Abia state, the witness said: “My lords, I was not a spirit so I could not have been in all the LGAs.
“On election day, after casting my vote, I moved around. While on my way to Umuahia, I visited some polling units along the route, until I arrived Umuahia.”
Asked if he wants the entire results of the presidential election to be canceled, the witness, said: “I cannot state what happened in other states.
“As for Abia state, I deposed that the election was marred by irregularities and substantial noncompliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
“Therefore, the result of the presidential election in Abia state amounted to a nullity,” Hon. Abonta added.
Meanwhile, Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel of the court adjourned further hearing on the petition by Atiku and its party, till Friday.
It will be recalled that Atiku, who came second in the election, had earlier tendered 118 exhibits before the court to support the petition he filed to challenge President Tinubu’s election victory.
Atiku and the PDP, are in their joint petition marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, praying the court to among other things, nullify Tinubu’s election and order INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to him.
The PDP candidate wants the court to declare that he was the valid winner of the presidential election.
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