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Atiku Gives ‘Details’ of INEC Servers, Set to Call Microsoft, IBM Experts as Witnesses
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, is set to call Microsoft, IBM and Oracle experts to authenticate his claim that the servers belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission showed that he defeated President Muhammadu Buhari by over 1.6 million votes.
Atiku also identified the server where the results are kept as INEC_PRES_RSLT_SRV2019 and its unique Mac address as 94-57-A5-DC-64-B9 with Microsoft Product ID 00252-70000-0000-AA535.
The PDP candidate said this in fresh response to the reply of INEC to his petition.
Atiku and the PDP will also be expected to tender INEC’s training manual on elections, a printout of the votes of candidates from smart card readers and a printout of the forensic audit report on INEC’s server as evidence.
The former Vice-President and the PDP claimed to have polled a total of 18,356,732 votes to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress who he said scored 16,741,430 votes.
However, INEC’s Director, Information and Communications Technology, Mr Chidi Nwafor, in his witness statement on oath attached to the reply, specifically denied the “server results” which the PDP and Atiku were laying claim to.
He said all the results were collated manually and were never transmitted electronically.
Atiku, in his fresh response, said the figures he claimed to have scored were genuine.
The reply read in part, “The servers from which the said figures were derived belong to the 1st respondent (INEC). The figures and votes were transmitted to the 1st respondent’s Presidential result’s server 1 and thereafter aggregated in INEC_PRES_RSLT_SRV2019 whose physical address or unique Mac address as 94-57-A5-DC-64-B9 with Microsoft Product ID 00252-70000-0000-AA535. The descriptions are unique to the 1st respondent’s server.”
On how the case would be argued, the PDP and Atiku stated, “The petitioners will at the trial of this petition rely on experts on Microsoft, IBM and Oracle, amongst others.”
The PDP candidate and his party said one of the spokespersons for the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Festus Keyamo (SAN), even attested to the fact that the election data was in INEC’s servers when he wrote a petition to the Inspector-General of Police calling on him to arrest Atiku.
The petition further stated, “The spokesperson for the second respondent’s campaign organisation (Keyamo) openly admitted that the data in question was in the first respondent’s server when he wrote and submitted a petition to the IGP and the Director of the Department of State Services asking the security agencies to investigate the second petitioner (the PDP) for allegedly hacking into the server of the first respondent (INEC) and obtaining the data in question.
“Specifically, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN) claimed in the petition that it was the first petitioner (Atiku) who smuggled the data into the server. The petitioners (Atiku and the PDP) hereby plead the said petition to the security agencies and the second respondent is hereby given notice to produce them at hearing.”
The PDP and Atiku said INEC’s claim that the transmission of results was purely manual was a lie.
They made references to several press statements issued by INEC insisting that there would be an electronic component of results collation.
Atiku and his party said there was nothing in the Electoral Act that barred INEC from transmitting results electronically.
They said INEC also lied when it claimed that its directive on election day was that card readers should only be used in areas where they worked.
The PDP and its presidential candidate added, “The petitioners shall at trial lead evidence to show that the first respondent (INEC) stated on several occasions before and after the elections that the use of card readers was compulsory.”
The petitioners also stated that INEC through its Chairman and Returning Officer, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, committed grave errors in the final collation of the presidential results.
The INEC boss was said to have muddled up the results, announcing the wrong figures for wrong political parties.
Atiku and his party said in the Form EC8E INEC falsely credited Rev. Chris Okotie (Presidential candidate of the Fresh Democratic Party) with a wrong political party and wrong scores and in the same vein, the INEC boss falsely credited Rev. Onwubuya Abraham (presidential candidate of Freedom and Justice Party) with a wrong political party and wrong scores.
The INEC chairman was also accused of falsely crediting Ojinika Chizee (presidential candidate of the Coalition for Change) and Abah Elaigwu (Change Advocacy Party) with the wrong scores and wrong political parties.
Meanwhile, the PDP has come to the defence of Atiku’s lead counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), whom INEC claimed was not a legal practitioner and was not licensed to practise law.
In a witness statement signed by a former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, the party said Uzoukwu was called to the bar in 1982 and was even the attorney-general of Imo State from 1994 to 1996.
The Punch
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has awarded three points, and three goals to Nigeria for the missed Libya game.
The development comes after the CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, said a thorough probe was ongoing following the recent controversy surrounding Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya.
Motsepe had maintained that the continental body would not tolerate any lack of sportsmanship and unfair treatment in African football.
However, in the latest development on Saturday, a statement signed by CAF’s Chairperson of CAF Disciplinary Board, Ousmane Kane said the decision to award Nigeria the points was taken after findings by the disciplinary committee it set up to look into the matter, found Libya guilty of the inhumane treatment meted out to the Nigerian senior men’s football team.
The 5-man disciplinary committee consist of; Mr. Ousmane Kane (Senegal) Chairperson, Ms. Njeri Onyango (Kenya) Vice-Chairperson, Mr. Felix Golbassia (Tchad) Member, Mr. Patrick Shale (Lesotho) Member, and Mr. Norman Arendse (South Africa) Member.
CAF said the disciplinary board decided that; “The Libya Football Federation is found to have breached Article 31 of the African, Cup of Nations Regulations as well as Articles 82 and 151 of the CAF Disciplinary Code, and that the match No.87 Libya v. Nigeria of the CAF African Cup of Nations Qualifiers 2025 (scheduled to be played on 15 October 2024 in Benghazi) is declared lost by forfeit by Libya (by a score of 3-0).”
Following the conclusion of the board’s findings, CAF also ordered the Libya Football Federation to pay a fine of USD 50,000 within 60 days of notification of the present decision.
The players and officials were stranded for hours at a Libyan airport and denied access to food and the internet as they prepared to honour their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier with the Mediterranean Knights.
It took diplomatic efforts and social media callouts for the team to be cleared to finally leave Libya.
With the CAF decision, Nigeria is now poised to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, with two matches to spare.
The Eagles are now on 10 points from four matches, four points better than second-placed Benin Republic, while Rwanda have five points. Bottom-placed Libya have only one point and are out of the running for qualification.
Victory or draw against the Cheetahs of Benin Republic in Abidjan on Thursday, 14th November (a Matchday 5 encounter) will land the Super Eagles a ticket to the finals in Morocco, December 2025/January 2026.
President Bola Tinubu has dismissed five ministers from his cabinet and appointed seven new ones as part of a cabinet reshuffle.
The President re-assigned 10 ministers to new portfolios and nominated seven new ministers for Senate confirmation.
He dismissed Uju-Ken Ohanenye as Minister of Women Affairs, Lola Ade-John as Minister of Tourism, Tahir Mamman as Minister of Education, Abdullahi Gwarzo as Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, and Jamila Ibrahim as Minister of Youth Development.
Among the nominees, Tinubu selected Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Nentawe Yilwatda as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, marking the official end of suspended Betta Edu’s tenure.
Other nominees include Maigari Dingyadi for Minister of Labour and Employment, Jumoke Oduwole for Minister of Industry, Idi Maiha for the newly established Ministry of Livestock Development, Yusuf Ata for Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, and Suwaiba Ahmad for Minister of State for Education.
“The appointment of Shehu Dikko as Chairman of the National Sports Commission.
“The appointment of Sunday Akin Dare as Special Adviser to the President on Public Communication and Orientation working from the Ministry of Information and National Orientation,” the President said.
The President appreciated the outgoing members of the Federal Executive Council for their service to the nation while wishing them the best in their future endeavours.
He then charged the newly appointed ministers and their reassigned colleagues to see their appointment as a call to serve the nation.
Source: Nairametrics
The Federal Government on Wednesday withdrew the money laundering charges preferred against Binance Holdings Limited executive, Tigran Gambaryan.
Binance, its U.S. head of financial crime compliance, Gambaryan, and the exchange British-Kenyan regional manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were facing money laundering charges to the tune of $35 million brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were initially both detained in the custody of the office of the National Security Adviser.
Anjarwalla, however, fled lawful custody on March 22, 2024, while his counterpart, Gambaryan, was arraigned in April.
Following his arraignment, the court ordered his remand to Kuje Correctional Facility.
