On Friday, the Presidential Election Petition Court was informed of serious allegations of electoral fraud during the 2023 presidential election.
According to these allegations, significant rigging occurred, primarily at Ward Collation Centres, against former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Mr Nicholas Msheliza, Borno State Collation Agent for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), testified about alleged harassment of PDP agents at collation centres.
The agents were allegedly chased away, and the polling unit results were then manipulated.
Msheliza also accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of violating the 2022 Electoral Act by failing to electronically transmit election results as required by law.
Hon Sani Idris Kutigi, a former House of Representatives member, also testified, alleging discrepancies between actual votes recorded at polling units and data entered into Form EC8D.
Due to these inconsistencies, he refused to endorse the compiled results.
However, when questioned by the All Progressives Congress (APC) counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, Kutigi admitted that he did not include the precise figures from the polling units in his witness statement due to space constraints.
The third witness, Silas Joseph Onu, a legal practitioner, claimed that while performing their duties at collation centres in Ebonyi State, PDP agents were chased out of polling units, arrested, and detained in police stations.
He also claimed that the perpetrators of the fraudulent results were unhindered because his party’s agents had to flee to avoid being hurt.
Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani adjourned the hearing to Monday, June 5, at the request of Atiku’s legal representative.
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