Tribunal: Drama As PDP Witness Claims Party Inflated Result, Testify Against Party

There was a mild drama at the Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State on Thursday over the testimony given by the witness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The witness, Barrister Ayiwulu Baba Ayiwulu, to the surprise of everyone admitted that his party inflated some results of the last election in the state.

Ayiwulu told the tribunal during cross-examination by the respondents’ counsels, namely Adebayo Adelodu, SAN, for Governor Abdullahi Sule, Ishaka Muddie Dikko, SAN, for INEC and Mathew Burkah, SAN, for the APC, that he served as the State Collation Agent during the March 18 governorship election.

He agreed that the figures in a sworn document, tendered before the tribunal by his party, might have had some figures that did not tally with that of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) due to human error.

The witness confirmed that from the BVAS screenshots tendered as exhibits the APC scored 293 votes in Polling Unit 022, but the mark was reduced to 45 votes, while the PDP scored 144 votes instead of 73 votes.

He disclosed further that the APC polled 169 votes but the agent recorded 167 votes, even as he recorded 67 votes instead of 61 votes for PDP in form EC8 across Gayam, Ciroma, Kanje/Abuni, Azara and Ashige electoral wards.

Ayiwulu said the judges can determine the real figures scored by parties in the said election based on the exhibits before the tribunal.

INEC’s lawyer also raised issues about the identities of some of the PDP agents who appeared as witnesses to the petitioners, noting that they were not properly accredited for the exercise.

Ayiwulu, however, informed the tribunal that although their names were not sent to INEC in the first list submitted to the commission, they were uploaded to INEC’s portal as stipulated by the commission before the February 18, 2023 deadline.

The prosecution lead counsel, Jibrin Samuel Okutepa SAN, earlier tendered two more documents which were produced by the State INEC Chief Engineer ICT Department, Godwin Udong Idioh, but the respondents’ counsel objected to the admissibility of the documents.

Okutepa thereafter applied to close their case, an application that was granted by the chairman of the tribunal Justice Ezekiel Ajayi.

Ajayi, thereafter, adjourned the hearing till Friday for the respondents to open their defences.

INEC had declared Governor Abdullahi Sule of the APC winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election, having polled 347,209 votes to win the election.

However, the PDP’s candidate, David Umbugadu rejected the poll outcome, alleging foul play on the part of the commission.

He, therefore, approached the tribunal asking it to overturn INEC’s decision and declare him the winner instead.