Headlines
INEC presiding officers Testify under Oath, Say Results were Transmitted Electronically
No fewer than a dozen people who said they were deployed as electoral officers by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019 presidential election have admitted under oath that they transmitted results electronically.
A question about whether or not results were forwarded to a central database of the commission has been amongst the top grounds for contesting the presidential election results by Atiku Abubakar and his opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mr Abubakar was the main challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari at the February 23 elections.
On February 27, the electoral umpire declared Mr Buhari winner of the elections, and issued him a certificate of return for a second four-year term starting May 29.
Mr Abubakar and his PDP challenged the results at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal last month, saying he won the election and was in possession of evidence that would upturn the declared outcome.
Mr Abubakar’s legal team submitted a different result to the tribunal, which showed the former vice-president as the winner of the election. The result showed Mr Abubakar had scored 18,356,732 votes to defeat Buhari, whom they said received 16,741,430 votes.
This contradicted the results declared by INEC, which said Mr Buhari received 15,191,847 votes against Mr Abubakar’s 11,262,978 votes.
Mr Abubakar’s lawyers said the results were released by an INEC whistleblower who had access to the commission’s internal server and other tools throughout the election.
They also provided unique identification information of computers that they said belonged to INEC, which they expected experts from Microsoft, IBM and Oracle to corroborate.
In its initial response to Mr Abubakar’s petition, INEC strongly denied operating a server during the election, saying such activities were not permitted by the electoral law. The commission accused Mr Abubakar of circulating fake results for the purpose of his petition.
Mr Buhari and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) also sided with the electoral umpire and alleged criminal interception of a public institution’s communication by Mr Abubakar and the PDP.
In a response to INEC’s denial of the server and its purported result, Mr Abubakar’s legal team attached affidavits from 12 persons they said worked for INEC.
The persons, according to the affidavits, said they worked as presiding officers and assistant presiding officers in Borno and Yobe. They were only identified in the documents by their initials, but a source close to Mr Abubakar told PREMIUM TIMES the witnesses will ultimately identify themselves in court.
The witnesses comprise seven presiding officers and five assistant presiding officers. They were six each from Borno and Yobe, and swore they were adequately recruited and trained by the commission ahead of the election.
“We were specifically instructed that the use of the smart card reader for accreditation, verification, authentication, collation
and transmission of results is mandatory and that any election conducted without the use of the smart card reader would be invalid.
“I took part in the conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) elections…where I served as the presiding officer (PO) and I ensured the use of the smart card reader for accreditation, verification, authentication, collation and transmission of votes in my polling unit.
“At the end of voting, the information on the smart card reader, the results inclusive were collated by me in the presence of the party agents and other ad-hoc staff of the 1st respondent after which my assistant presiding officer (AP0-1) transmitted the result electronically in my presence to INEC’s server using the smart card reader and the code provided by the commission,” a typical testimony from one of the witnesses read.
The wording of the affidavits was identical. Assistant presiding officers also swore they sent the results to a designated INEC server.
Meanwhile, the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) said its observers saw polling officers ‘attempting’ to transmit results electronically in 65 per cent (961 of 1489) of polling units observed on the presidential election day.
The group’s director, Samson Itodo, said the data only captured polling officers who made attempts to transmit results using smart card readers. It could not confirm whether or not the transmissions were successful.
A spokesperson for INEC declined comments to PREMIUM TIMES about the comments of the presiding officers and their assistants.
The officers are usually deployed for elections on ad-hoc basis, and most of them were not the commission’s employees.
An election expert and director at one of the main election observer groups told PREMIUM TIMES some results were transmitted via the smart card readers, but were only designed to aggregate results from across the country.
“There were some polling units whose card readers were used to transmit results on election day for aggregation,” the expert said under anonymity because of his closeness to the commission and also to avoid publicly commenting on a matter already in court.
He suggested that INEC’s outright denial of electronic transmission of results could be because neither the electoral law nor its guidelines made provisions for electronic transmission of results.
“The law and the guidelines allowed only manual transmission in all the stages of the results collation,” the expert said. “That may be why the commission decided to deny using electronic means for its own internal compilation.”
He said only the court could hold INEC responsible for any discrepancy in its internal results and what the commission declared to the public.
Premium Times
Former Governor of Delta State, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential running mate in the 2023 election, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has dumped the PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Okowa confirmed the news of his defection to ARISE NEWS on Wednesday following the announcement of the current governor of Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori, who also defected from the PDP to the APC on Wednesday.
The development was disclosed by Senator James Manager after a six-hour meeting at Government House, Asaba.
“All PDP members in the state, including the governor, former Governor Okowa, the Speaker, the state party chairman, all the local government chairmen and others, have agreed to move to the APC,” Manager stated. “We cannot continue to be in a sinking boat.”
Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr Aniagwu Charles, officially confirmed the sweeping political shift, attributing the decision to the need for renewed direction and enhanced governance in the state.
“There is a need for us to adjust our drinking patterns. And in adjusting that drinking pattern, we needed to make a decision that would further help to cement the development in our state,” he said.
Aniagwu added that the move aimed to sustain progress in law, security, and welfare, likening the PDP to a “palm wine whose taste has changed,” necessitating a change in “drinking party”.
He further indicated that the defection was unanimously agreed upon by key PDP leaders and stakeholders in the state, with a formal public declaration expected on Monday.
“By the grace of God, on Monday next week, we will be able to make a very big statement confirming that we are moving into the APC,” he said.
The mass defection represents a dramatic realignment in Delta State’s political landscape and could significantly alter party dynamics in the broader South-South region, historically a PDP stronghold.
Okowa will be received on Monday by Vice President Kashim Shettima alongside Governor Oborevwori.
AriseNews
Delta State governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The defection was announced after Wednesday’s closed-door meeting at the Government House in Asaba by the Governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Sir Festus Ahon.
Ahon said the Governor’s decision to switch allegiance to the ruling APC came after thorough discussions with political stakeholders, aimed at fostering long-term development for Delta State.
Governor Oborevwori, who secured victory in the 2023 gubernatorial election under the platform of the PDP, was welcomed by high-ranking APC officials.
The National Assembly has taken a swipe at Pastor Tunde Bakare over his recent criticism of the country’s legislature, describing it as biased.
Bakare, the serving overseer of The Citadel Global Community Church, had on Sunday condemned the Senate’s suspension of Senator Natasha-Akpoti Uduaghan; the National Assembly’s ratification of the emergency rule in Rivers State.
“The two main contenders in the ongoing institutional immorality Olympics are the executive and the legislature,” he said.
But on Tuesday, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, said the cleric was biased and crossed the line in his commentary.
“While the Senate respects the right of every citizen – regardless of station – to express views on the state of the nation, we are constrained to respond when such commentary crosses the line into unwarranted invective and misleading assertions that risk eroding public trust in democratic institutions,” the statement by Adaramodu read.
Adaramodu said, “such commentary crosses the line into unwarranted invective and misleading assertions that risk eroding public trust in democratic institutions”.
“We view his corrosive criticisms of the National Assembly as a biased and political ecumenical homily,” the statement read.
“The challenges facing our country require dialogue anchored on truth, mutual respect, and a commitment to nation-building, not polarizing rhetoric that undermines confidence in our democratic institutions.”
“We are confident that, in time, with a nuanced review of the performance of the 10th national assembly — within the context of the exigencies of this time and season — Pastor Bakare may, at some point in the future, commend us for acting in the best interest of the people of Nigeria, in line with our constitutional mandate,” the Senator added.
