Politics
Atiku Petition: Myself, Other Party Agents Signed Nasarawa Results Under Duress, Witness Tells Court
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.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has launched a fresh attack on former Anambra State Governor and 2027 presidential hopeful, Peter Obi, over his administration’s financial record, accusing him of failing to fully account for the state’s liabilities when he left office.
The APC campaign council, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Dele Alake, on Monday, September 21, 2026, said recent disclosures by the Anambra State Government had challenged claims that Obi left the state without a debt burden.
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According to the council, the Anambra State Government disclosed that Obi spent about $4.05 billion, equivalent to N5.4 trillion, during his eight years as governor and contracted $123.77 million in external loans.
It further claimed that eight external borrowing facilities for projects covering malaria control, erosion management, education and healthcare were outstanding when Obi left office on March 17, 2014.
The APC council said subsequent administrations, including that of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, continued to service the obligations.
Alake argued that while borrowing was not inherently wrong when used for development, the issue was significant because of Obi’s long-standing public image as a financially prudent leader and his alleged claim that he left Anambra without a debt burden.
The statement also raised allegations concerning unpaid salaries during Obi’s tenure.
Alake cited a memo purportedly written by Obi’s then Chief of Staff, Chuks Ileogbunam, dated April 25, 2006, appealing to the former governor to pay N15 million in monthly salaries owed to workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation.
According to the APC spokesman, the memo warned that the workers could protest at the Governor’s Office over the unpaid salaries.
The statement quoted Ileogbunam as appealing to Obi to consider the welfare of the affected workers and their families.
The APC campaign council further claimed that Obi had promised during his campaign for governor that he would resign if there was any case where workers were not paid as and when due.
Against that backdrop, Alake challenged Obi to honour what he described as his previous commitment to withdraw from the presidential race if it was established that his administration left liabilities behind in Anambra.
“Indeed, if Peter Obi has any honour, he must resign from the 2027 presidential race forthwith, in keeping with his promise to end his run if it is proven that his administration left behind liabilities in Anambra,” Alake said.
The APC spokesman also criticised Obi over a recent solidarity visit to an individual facing an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) trial, questioning the political implications of the visit.
The latest statement comes amid an ongoing dispute over the financial record of Obi’s eight-year administration in Anambra.
The Anambra State Government has maintained that records show external loans contracted during Obi’s tenure remained outstanding after he left office, while the issue has become a major point of political debate ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The APC campaign council urged Obi to address the allegations and account for his administration’s financial record rather than continue to project himself as a leader who left Anambra without liabilities.
Political watchers have been and will continue following the verbose altercation between two illustrious sons of Igboland, Peter Gregory Obi and Charles Chukwuma Soludo.
Interestingly, both hail from Anambra State and share the common academic background of having studied at the famous University of Nigeria, for which they are called Lions. Their feminine counterparts would be called Lionesses.
At the moment they are in the roped square, battling for the votes of the entire Igboland, one for himself and the other for his “political friend”.
Obi, who prides himself as a trader in the polity, was governor of Anambra State from March 2006 to March 2014. He even survived an impeachment in his leadership of the state which resulted in a brief break in late 2006 and 2007. Towards the end of his tenure as governor, Obi warmed himself into the hearts of the party at the centre, then the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was invited to the high table on several occasions by then President Goodluck Jonathan.
He has since remained focused on offering his services to Nigeria at the highest office in the land.
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Soludo is the incumbent governor of Anambra State. An office he unsuccessfully vied for in 2010 under the PDP. He faced defeat in the hands of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), led by Obi.
Obi Versus Soludo
The electorate understand that both are ambitious politicians, who would give whatever they deem fit to fuel the fire of their political appetite.
The fact that Soludo switched from the PDP to APGA to realise his gubernatorial ambition speaks volumes to politicians, their loyalty and ambitions.
Their academic backgrounds show that Obi earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1984, while Prof Soludo earned three degrees and a professorship in economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, winning the prize for the best graduating student at every level. He etched his name into national consciousness during his tenure as the Economic Adviser to the President, which earned him appointment as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). An office he used to engineer banking reforms in Nigeria and endear himself to the citizenry.
Their stories become more intriguing when mirrored in the political microscope.
Obi stood with the people, (something akin to the talikawa political philosophy in the northern part of Nigeria), under the grassroot political movement championed by the APGA and fought with the arms of strategic marketing communications, mass appeal and the judiciary to oust then ruling party at the centre, the PDP from the Anambra State Government House.
Soludo’s first attempt at gaining executive political power through the ruling PDP proved abortive and he had to navigate his way into APGA to realise his ambition.
On his way to the Anambra State Government House, through the APGA Soludo had to eulogise the heroes of the party and Igbo icons, including the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu and Obi. Some of the eulogies he rendered now stare him in the face, diminishing his diatribes against Obi.
Politics of Friend of My Enemy
In the game of politics, fair is foul and foul is fair. What matters most to the average Nigerian politician is to attain his or her ambition. Nigeria’s political landscape is replete with family members (spouses, blood brothers/sisters, nephews and cousins, name it) being pitched against one another as pawns in the political chess game.
Political watchers are confident that the Obi, Soludo case will not be the last. It has been on, they say, citing the instance of cousins in Rivers State, Celestine Omehia and Rotimi Amaechi battling hard for the governorship of Rivers State in 2007. They also point out that no love lost political game played in Kwara State, involving the Olusola Saraki family with his son, Bukola Saraki who went toe-to-toe against his sister, Gbemisola Saraki.
At the moment the political melodrama involving the Nasir El-Rufai family, where his children are singing discordant tunes is a fresh case study in the Nigerian polity.
This is why political observers see nothing strange in the Obi versus Soludo political theatricals.
This matter is compounded by the fact that Nigerians care less about how their political leaders emerge. The Nigerian judiciary is also not known to indulge in meticulous scrutiny of how the executive power holders ascend the throne.
Those in the know maintain that Soludo is merely piping the tunes being dictated by the party at the centre, the All Progressives Congress (APC), partly because he wants to be in their good books, which will help him shield himself from thorough investigations, while he also wants to build a foundation for his future political ambitions.
Recall that Soludo sought the backing of the APC for his re-election as governor of Anambra State for which he in turn assured the powers that be, that he would support them in the presidential election of 2027.
As the beat for the dance of the voters in the 2027 presidential election hots up, the APC might have thought to undo a formidable opponent, Obi, in his homefront, sought for, found and recruited a good ally in Soludo.
A chieftain of the APC and Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, vented the stance of the ruling party and what informed the position, either unwittingly or strategically, in a post on his verified handle on X on Friday.
Keyamo wrote, “I see some suggestions that everyone is ‘obsessed’ about Peter Obi because we are always talking about him. I am sorry, but they miss the point. When someone lies per second, you also have to fact-check him per second. He got away with the lies in 2023, but this time Nigerians are ready to fact-check every claim of the ‘yes-daddy’ man.
“Therefore, to put it simply, the amount of time we talk about Peter Obi is directly proportional to the amount of lies he tells.”
What the People are Saying
The electorate to whom both Obi, Soludo and the APC are piping are not merely watching with keen interest, they are lending their voices into the political rhymes.
And the words from the streets indicate that the voters are, to paraphrase, legendary Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart, ‘the people did not just notice that Okonkwo was not seated among the elders; they also observed “that the second spirit walks with the same distinct, springy step as” Okonkwo’.
A political activist, Obodo Umunna, told Biztellers that while the political parties and politicians remain within their rights remain within their rights to canvass for votes, as they deem fit, they are also aware that the electorate can make free choices.
“This is why they are eager to grab it and run with it,” he said, adding that should they trust the narratives they are peddling, there would be less election malpractice in Nigeria.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Ogun State, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as YAYI, has donated a 30-seater bus to the Remo Traditional Council.
Adeola disclosed the donation on Friday during a visit to the Akarigbo and Paramount Ruler of Remoland, Oba (Dr.) Babatunde Adewale Ajayi, and the entire Remo Traditional Council.
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The donation, according to the APC candidate, was made in further support of the traditional institution and to facilitate the official engagements and responsibilities of members of the council.
Adeola visited the traditional council alongside Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun; his running mate, Alhaja Kudirat Adegunwa-Balogun; and other APC leaders.
He expressed appreciation to Governor Abiodun for presenting him and his running mate to the royal fathers as his successors, while commending the governor for laying what he described as a solid foundation for Ogun State’s continued growth.
The APC candidate said he was committed to consolidating the achievements of the Abiodun administration if elected, promising to govern the state with fairness, equity and integrity.
Adeola also pledged that no community would be neglected under his proposed administration.
He thanked the Akarigbo and other traditional rulers for their warm reception, encouraging remarks and special royal prayers for him and his running mate.
The visit comes as political activities ahead of the 2027 Ogun State governorship election continue.
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