During the proceedings at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja, Mr. Ibrahim Hamza, a witness, came forward on Monday to testify that he had been compelled under pressure to sign the presidential election results in Nasarawa state.

Mr. Hamza, the 10th Petitioners’ Witness (PW-10), testified before Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel at the PEPC, providing details about his role as a state collation agent for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the presidential election held on February 25.

In his testimony, Hamza revealed that officials from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had informed him that he would not receive a copy of the election result unless he signed it, putting him under duress to comply.

He said “Myself and other agents of the party signed the result under duress. They threatened that we would not be issued a copy unless we signed the results.”

During his testimony, the witness informed the court that there were a total of 3,256 polling units in Nasarawa state, emphasizing that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had agents present in all the units and wards across the state.

When presented with a copy of the presidential result from Nasarawa state, which had already been submitted as evidence, the witness alleged that it had been tampered with. He maintained that the version he had signed was a clean and unaltered copy.

According to the witness, based on the result presented in court, the Labour Party emerged as the winner of the presidential election in Nasarawa state, securing a total of 191,361 votes, which accounted for 35.40% of the total votes cast.

Hamza further informed the court that there was a system failure in the uploading process of the election results by INEC after the election took place.

Earlier in the court proceedings, Alhaji Mohammed Madaki, the Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), disclosed that based on the “purported results” published by INEC, the PDP’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, did not secure the constitutionally required 25% of the votes from the FCT, Abuja.

Led by Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, counsel for Atiku Abubakar and the PDP, the witness identified Exhibit PC-37, which was the election result from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), already presented as evidence in court.

During cross-examination by Mr. Abdullahi Aliu, counsel for INEC, the Chairman of the PDP in the FCT reiterated that according to the law, it was mandatory for a presidential candidate to secure at least 25% of the votes in the FCT to be declared the winner of the election.

Asked if he was aware that going by his position on 25% votes in the FCT, his candidate, Atiku, was not qualified to be declared winner of the presidential election, the witness, said: “Yes, by the purported result published by INEC, he is not entitled to be returned as President.”

He told the court that the normal practice was that copies of the presidential election are snapped at polling units and uploaded to INEC’s I-Rev portal.

Alhaji Madaki told the court that PDP had agents across all the polling units, adding that agents of the party also signed result of the presidential election from the FCT.

While being cross-examined by President Bola Tinubu’s lawyer, Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, the witness, told the court that there were a total of 2, 822 polling units in the FCT.

Also responding to questions from counsel for the All Progressives Congress, APC, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the witness said he has lived in the FCT for over 35 years.

He told the court that he personally wrote his witness statement on oath at a business center and took the same to his lawyer for examination.

When he was presented with a document to read before the court, the witness, said he could not see the letters without his reading glasses which he said broke Sunday night.

Asked to tell the court the meaning of “conscientiously” that was contained in his statement, the witness, replied: “Honestly, I cannot remember.”

When he was asked if he was aware that there are a total of 176, 606 polling units across Nigeria, the witness, said he was not aware.

Shortly after Alhaji Madaki was discharged by the court, the ninth witness, PW-9, Mr. Abraham David, who mounted the box, told the court that he served as an agent of the PDP in the FCT, during the election.

The PW-9, told the court that Atiku, being the presidential candidate of his party, scored only 15% of votes in the FCT.

Asked under cross-examination, if he was aware that Atiku did not secure up to 25% votes in the FCT and therefore, going by argument of his party, not qualified to be returned as winner of the presidential poll, Mr. David, said: “I agree that having not score 25%, he is not entitled to be returned as President. Even Tinubu too did not also score 25%.

“If it was not wrong to return Tinubu who did not score 25%, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar can also be returned. The person that was returned by INEC did not score 25% in the FCT,” the witness insisted.

The witness informed the court that he personally visited approximately 15 polling units in the FCT during the presidential election. He stated that while he witnessed the collation process, the results were not transmitted to INEC I-Rev as mandated by the law.

The witness further alleged that the collation of the presidential result in the FCT took around three days, during which he claimed that INEC officials compromised the integrity of the electoral process.

When asked to provide the names of the INEC officials involved in the alleged electoral malpractice, the witness stated that he did not know their names.

Recall that one aspect of the joint petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP to contest the results of the presidential election was their claim that President Tinubu of the APC failed to obtain at least one-quarter of the votes cast in the FCT, Abuja.

The petitioners argued that out of the total votes cast in the FCT, which amounted to 478,652, President Tinubu received only 90,902 votes, accounting for 18.99% of the total votes.

“The Petitioners shall contend that to be declared duly elected, a candidate, in addition to obtaining not less than a quarter (25%) of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of all the States, must also receive at least one quarter (25%) of the votes cast in the FCT, Abuja, this being an additional requirement introduced by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the said Constitution having clearly distinguished the FCT, Abuja as a separate entity by specific and express mention,” they added.

During the Monday proceedings, the panel led by Justice Tsammani heard the testimony of Dr. Abiye Sekibo, a former Minister of Transportation and a prominent member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers state, Dr. Sekibo who appeared as the 7th Petitioners’ Witness (PW7).

During his examination-in-chief, Dr. Sekibo presented a letter of appointment issued by the PDP, appointing him as the Coordinator for the Presidential Election. The letter was admitted as evidence and marked as Exhibits PU.

Dr. Sekibo also identified Exhibit PC-32, which had already been submitted to the court, as the result of the presidential election from Rivers State as announced by INEC..

Under cross-examination, the witness insisted that Atiku won the presidential election in Rivers state, even though he accused President Tinubu and the APC of instigating violence that scared electorates away from many polling units.

Dr Sekibo, who told the court that he voted in his Local Government Area, Okirika, further alleged that the results of the election were not uploaded across about 6000 polling units in the state.

He said: “I was in my Local Government Area on the election day and I voted. I was verified, using the BVAS device.

“The accreditation took less than five minutes and I was thereafter given the ballot and I voted. I stayed for a while at my polling unit, for about 10 minutes before I left.

“Thereafter I left to see what was going on and came back to my unit when they started counting. I was there when they finished and unfortunately, the result could not be uploaded.

“The result sheet was filed in my presence and signed by party agents. I also witnesses results being collated in more than polling units at different times. There are more than 6000 polling units in Rivers state.

“In almost all the polling units, having concluded the election they could not upload. This happened across the entire state.”

Asked if he was aware that the 20 polling units he visited, out of the over 6000 polling units in the state, amounted to about 0.5%, the witness, said: “I will leave the calculation for mathematics”.

Asked to mention the names of the agents that harassed voters and stopped uploading of the results, he said; “I don’t need to know their names. But by their actions, one could know who sent them”.

On the alleged violence on the election day, Dr. Sekibo, said: “I received calls from our members that were asking to be rescued. We immediately responded and started heading to Obio/Akpor after I got the call, but we were blocked.”

When questioned about his presence at any of the Local Government Areas (LGAs) where members of his party were reportedly attacked, the witness clarified that he was not physically present at those locations.

During the cross-examination conducted by Prince Fagbemi, SAN, counsel for the APC, the witness acknowledged that the agents of his party whom he had claimed were attacked during the election were still alive.

Asked why he did not mention names of perpetrators of the violence in his statement on oath before the court, the witness, said: “I didn’t have to. What they were doing in the field showed who they were. By the action they carried out, we knew whose interest they were protecting.”

Asked if he was aware that in the 2023 elections, votes were not based on political party lines, as the PDP, won the presidential election in Katsina, Dr Sekibo, replied: “The PDP won the governorship election in Rivers State and we are saying that we also won the presidential election. I am not from Katsina”.

The witness stated to the court that he was not the individual who signed the results of the presidential election in Rivers state.

However, the court then adjourned the proceedings, with further hearings scheduled to take place on Tuesday.