A witness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ibrahim Hamza, on Monday, told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that he signed the election results of Nasarawa State under duress.
The witness said this at the continuation of hearing of petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and his Party PDP.
They are challenging the February 25 presidential election results, which brought President Bola Tinubu as duly elected president.
The respondents in the petition marked CA/PEPC/05/2023 are Independent National electoral Commission (INEC), president Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The witness, who is the 10th witness called by the PDP, said he is a human resources consultant and represented his party, PDP as Nasarawa collation officer.
Being cross examined by the counsel for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mahmoud, the witness told the court that he signed the results under duress.
“I did not state this in my witness statement of oath because I know a day like this would come.
“The results were altered after I appended my name and signed.
“Due process was not followed…I had to sign to obtain a copy of the results because there was this intimidation that if I did not sign, I would not be given the result” he said.
He said that he voted but the results were not uploaded because the Bimodal Voters Accrediton system (BVAS) failed.
Similarly, Abiye Sekibo, 7th witness (PW7) told the court during cross-examination by counsel for Tinubu, Akin Olujimi SAN that the results from polling units across the state were not captured on the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System.
Sekibo, is PDP’s state collation officer for Rivers
He said, “All the polling units I went to…they could not upload the results.”
He, however, admitted that his candidate did not poll up to 25% of votes in the Federal Capital Territory.
Abraham David testified as the 9th witness (PW9) and was the FCT collation officer , he also said his candidate did not win 25 per cent votes in FCT.
Lastly, Mohammed Madaki, PDP chairman for FCT testified as the 8th witness (PW8).
Meanwhile, the five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani adjourned the further hearing of the petition until tomorrow (June 6, 2023).
[NAN]
