Atiku: our request to inspect server not rejected by PEPT

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the February 23 presidential election Atiku Abubakar on Tuesday insisted that his request to inspect the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) central server was not rejected by the tribunal.

The former vice president the position taken by the Presidency on the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) he and his party filed at the tribunal.

On Monday, the PEPT turned down the request by Atiku and the PDP to be allowed to inspect the said INEC server, a ruling the Presidency described the Presidency described as justice over propaganda.

In a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the Presidency hailed the PEPT verdict.

Shehu had hailed the ruling as a “landmark” and went on to say that “the existence of a purported server is being contested and if a purported inspection had been allowed at this stage, it would have amounted to the determination that it indeed existed even when its existence is being contested”.

Read Also: I’ve no plans to protest over INEC server, says Atiku

Responding to Shehu’s statement through his spokesman, Paul Ibe, the PDP presidential candidate insisted that he did not only win the February 23 election but that the Muhammadu Buhari administration lacked the requisite executive temperament and capacity as would be established in the course of time.

Ibe, in a statement, attempted to educate Shehu on the import of the tribunal ruling, insisting that the request by Atiku Abubakar and PDP to inspect the INEC server was not rejected.

He said: “What the honourable tribunal said is that it is still at preliminary stages and the main case has not begun and that the matter of granting access to inspect the INEC server is not relevant to the preliminary stages. It is a matter to be adjudicated upon when the case proper is being heard.”

Ibe said it was too early in the day for the Presidency to jubilate, arguing that the opposition party has enough facts to prove that the results of the February 23 election were transmitted electronically into INEC’s central server.

He said: “In their rush to claim a pyrrhic victory, the Buhari administration missed out the fact that the 2019 budget has multiple line items for procurement, maintenance and service of the server they claim does not exist.

“Furthermore, the statement tried to spin the recent verdict on the election passed by the EU election observers. For the avoidance of doubt, what the EU report said is that the 2019 elections had significant defects and fell short of the 2019 elections.

“It should be noted that one of the issues they raised is the attempt to muzzle not just the media, but more importantly, the judiciary.

“In the light of this, we remind those who are gloating in their ignorance that ‘he who laughs last, laughs best’.

“The last has not been heard of this matter and we eagerly anticipate the actual ruling of the tribunal when the case proper begins.”