PEPTribunal: PDP, Atiku to present video evidences today

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar will today play back videos of the February 23 presidential election at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

A senior counsel in the Atiku team said the videos will point out how alleged riggings were carried out by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Atiku and the PDP were also expected to present their star witnesses next week as they concluded their case on the petition challenging the result of the election.
Also, the petitioners called nine more local government collation agents as witnesses, who testified over alleged voter intimidation, harassment and cancellation of results.
A local government collation officer, Adam Ali Hamsami testified that bomb blasts occurred five times in Jere Local Government around 12 midnight and morning hours of the election on February 23.

He alleged that the bomb explosions affected the proper collation of results in Borno State.

“There were attacks in Hadamari and Gongolon, and people ran away to the Maiduguri metropolis,” he said.

Hamsami further narrated that as the supervising officer for the PDP in the area, he managed to get some of his party agents to return to their polling units. He said he received reports from his agents that people could not come out to vote, as there were no INEC supervising officers at the units.

In the same vein, Bukar Bukar Pedro, a local government collation officer also testified that activities of Boko Haram fighters disrupted voting in Damboa Local Government Area. He said because of this, officials decided to gather people at the local government headquarters where voting for all the 10 polling units and 10 wards took place.

Under cross examination by counsel to APC, Dipo Okpeseyi (SAN), he said voting was delayed because electoral officers “deliberately did not start distribution of sensitive and non-sensistive materials as agreed.”