The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has urged Presidential Election Tribunal in Abuja to dismiss Atiku Abubakar’s petition challenging the outcome of the 25 February election that produced Bola Tinubu as the president.
The commission said the 27 witnesses he called to prove his petition fell far short 100 he proposed to call.
Atiku, the presidential flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the disputed poll, is challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu.
INEC had on 1 March declared Mr Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) election winner.
One of Atiku’s major issues with the election centred around INEC’s alleged manipulation of votes in favour of Mr Tinubu.
He alleged that the electoral umpire allowed a third-party device to hijack its electronic Results Viewing (IReV) portal during the presidential election, creating a loophole for Mr Tinubu to manipulate poll results.
Atiku, the 1st runner-up at the poll, proposed during the prehearing session to call 100 witnesses to prove allegations of electoral malpractices and fraud against INEC and Mr Tinubu.
However, he presented 27 witnesses who comprised electoral officers and experts to substantiate his claims.
INEC had blamed its inability to upload photographic copies of polling units’ results of the Presidential election on its IReV portal on technical glitches.
In its final written address in response to Atiku’s allegations of electoral fraud, INEC, through its lead counsel, Abubakar Mahmoud, told the court that Atiku called only 24 witnesses from over 176,000 polling stations.
Mahmoud, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), argued that 24 witnesses were insufficient to establish electoral malpractices in the 176,000 polling units across Nigeria where the presidential election was held last February.
“By law, the petitioners (Atiku and PDP) must prove through credible evidence from the 176,000 polling units that the non-use of the BVAS device to transmit the results real-time affected the outcome of the (presidential) election,” Mr Mahmoud argued.
The lawyer further contended that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines, which Atiku alleged were not functioning properly in the 176,000 polling units in Nigeria during the polls, were not produced by the PDP candidate in support of his case.
He said all of Atiku’s witnesses testified before the five-member panel of the court that the BVAS device functioned adequately except for the uploading of images of the presidential election from the polling stations, which INEC argued did not detract from the election’s “integrity and credibility.”
Responding to Atiku’s allegations of manipulation of ballots, BVAS, intimidation and harassment of voters and massive thumb printing of ballot papers, amongst others, the commission said the allegations were criminal in nature.
“We submit that these allegations as contained in the petition are criminal in nature and must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.”