Presidential poll: PDP won Feb 23 election in Katsina, says witness

…Atiku calls 13 additional witnesses

…Witnesses insist they transmitted election results to INEC sever

Andrew Orolua, Abuja

Petitioner witness number eight, Yusuf Majigiri, on Tuesday, told the Presidential election petition tribunal that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the Presidential election of February 23 in Katsina State with 905,000 votes against All Progressives Congress (APC) 807,000 votes.

Majigiri, the chairman of PDP Katsina State chapter, disclosed this in his testimony at the hearing of petition challenging the election of President Muhammadu Buhari at the tribunal.

The witness further told the tribunal that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) manipulated the actual total votes scored at the election.

He said that the official result figures announced by INEC in Katsina State were allocated to APC and PDP.

According to the witness, several supporters of the PDP who turned out to cast their votes were intimidated, harassed and chased away from the polling units by thugs hired by All Progressives Congress (APC) with the support of police.

Asked by the counsel to Buhari, Chief Wole Olanipekun whether in 1983 he heard the then military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari addressing the nation in English languages, the witness said that he was in the village and he would not have heard Buhari addressing the nation in English languages.

Majigiri said that the true and correct vote scored as collated by the agents from the local government areas of Katsina State was PDP 905, 000 votes against APC 807, 000 votes.

However, he did not tender or produce before the tribunal what he claimed to be the actual result of the election. He said in answer to a question by Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the counsel to APC, that the report containing the result was submitted to the PDP.

Another PDP witness, Salihu Adamu Funtua, disagreed with the Olanipekun (SAN), that 150, 203 votes scored by PDP and 1, 555, 633 votes for APC as announced by INEC was the actual result.

Thirteen witnesses on Tuesday testified for PDP and Atiku in continuation of the presentation of their case.

Among the witnesses were Ogunsoya Abiola and Uchenna Umeh, who were INEC assistant presiding officers 1 during the election in Dutse Alhaji polling unit and Galadima Primary School polling unit in Abuja respectively.

In their testimonies, they insisted that the result of February 23 was transmitted electronically by them from their polling units to an INEC sever.

Both witnesses claimed under cross -examination that during their training they were taught, assigned and provided with a code by INEC technicians to transmit the results to INEC sever.

They also informed the tribunal that they were warned not to disclose the Code numbers to anybody.

“I transmitted the result of the election electronically to INEC sever,” Umeh told the tribunal.

Asked whether the transmission of results was part of their duty schedule as assistant presiding officers in the INEC election manual, they could not point to any section of the manual that provides that assistant presiding officers should transmit results.

But, they insisted that the duty to transmit was allocated to them after the general training session a day before the election.

Other witnesses who adopted their statements on oath are Aliyu Musa Usaz, Ibrahim Musa, Audu Salihu, Musa Abdulsalam, Balarabe Usman, Umar Alhaji, Alhaji Abubakar Wali and Bako Umar Katanga.

Though they alleged over voting, disruption of election, violence and other various election malpractices during the election in their testimonies, Audu Salihu and Bako Umar Katanga under intense cross examination, said that the election took place on April 25 and March 23 respectively.

The hearing has been adjourned to (Thursday) tomorrow for continuation.