Buhari vs Atiku: Tribunal Summons INEC Chairman, Zamfara REC

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has ordered the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, and the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Zamfara State to appear before it with documents requested by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its 2019 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

The order followed subpoenas obtained by Atiku and the PDP from the five-member tribunal headed by Justice Mohammed Garba.

The petitioners were challenging INEC’s declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the February 23 presidential election.

During proceedings, counsel to Atiku and the PDP, Chris Uche, SAN, accused INEC of frustrating the petitioners’ case by failing to comply with the subpoenas.

Uche told the tribunal that both Yakubu and the Zamfara REC had been properly served with orders requiring them to appear and produce specific documents relevant to the presidential election petition.

In its ruling, the tribunal noted that records showed the INEC chairman had been served with the subpoena on July 15.

Justice Garba held that both electoral officials had a legal obligation to comply with the tribunal’s order and directed them to appear with the required documents by noon the following day.

Meanwhile, Atiku and the PDP continued calling witnesses to support their allegations of irregularities during the presidential election.

One of the witnesses, Aliyu Abdullahi, who served as a PDP ward collation agent in Nasarawa State, told the tribunal that he was surprised to hear that election results had been recorded in areas where residents had allegedly fled because of communal violence involving Tiv communities and Fulani herders.

Abdullahi, who appeared as the petitioners’ 52nd witness, said people had deserted the affected communities because of the clashes.

He told the tribunal that despite the displacement, INEC retained two polling units in the affected area.

Abdullahi said he refused to collect or sign the results attributed to the polling units because he questioned how voting could have taken place under the circumstances.

He also confirmed under cross-examination that PDP agents assigned to the two polling units were still alive.

Another witness from Nasarawa State, Dangana Barde, testified that Atiku defeated Buhari in the area where he served as a ward collation agent.

Barde told the tribunal that Atiku received 22,580 votes while Buhari was credited with 9,407 votes in the ward.

He alleged that the result was later cancelled at the local government collation centre without any explanation being given to him.

According to Barde, the ward result was taken to the local government collation centre, after which party agents were asked to leave.

He said he was subsequently surprised to hear that the APC had been declared winner in the area.

Under cross-examination, however, Barde acknowledged that Karu Local Government Area contained more than 100 polling units, despite his earlier reference to 13 polling units in connection with his testimony.

Another witness, Arome Yahaya from Kogi State, became emotional while testifying about alleged violence against PDP supporters during the presidential election.

Yahaya, who appeared as the petitioners’ 57th witness, said he served as a ward collation agent during the election.

He alleged that armed thugs invaded his ward, fired gunshots and took away electoral materials.

According to him, two people suffered serious gunshot injuries during the attack and one of them later died.

Yahaya said the violence prevented him from supervising the 29 polling units in his ward, which he described as a stronghold of the PDP and Atiku.

He told the tribunal that the shooting forced him to hide in the bush for much of the election period.

The testimonies formed part of Atiku and the PDP’s effort to establish their claims that irregularities, violence and other forms of non-compliance affected the conduct and outcome of the February 23 presidential election.

Buhari, the APC and INEC disputed the petitioners’ allegations and defended the official result declaring Buhari winner of the election.