Disputed Mandate! As PDP, APC begin legal battle

A fresh mandate won by incumbent president and All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has become a subject of discord and disaffection between him and his main rival in the February 23 poll, Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples  Democratic Party (PDP).

In the result declared penultimate week by the chairman of the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who was the Chief Returning Officer for the exercise, the APC  presidential candidate polled 15, 191, 847 to defeat the PDP  presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who scored a total votes of 11, 262, 978.

Speaking with newsmen after the announcement of the result, former Aviation Minister and the PDP agent, Osita Chidoka, offered newsmen a hint that his party and its candidate would be proceeding to court to challenge the outcome of the exercise.

Before the final announcement of result, the former Aviation Minister had expressed reservations over the smartness of the Smart Card Reader in the Northern states, as against its dysfunctional performance in the South. He also expressed reservations over the high turnout of voters in the insurgency-ravaged North-East states and states at the mercy of banditry the likes of Zamfara and Katsina, as against their counterparts in the South-South and the South- East zones. The PDP agent further expressed consternation over the volume of rejected votes in the presidential and national assembly elections.

While speaking with newsmen before he stormed out of the International Conference Centre, Abuja which was used as INEC Collation Centre, Mr Chidoka, who declined to append his signature on the result sheet unlike his APC counterpart, Hameed Ali said the result as pronounced by the INEC chairman did not reflect the genuine votes of Nigerians.

He said: “The PDP does not accept this result as representing the valid votes of Nigerians.

We have raised three issues: first after all the investment in technology, we required INEC, after spending N27 billion in this year’s budget alone for technology, we had expected that today, INEC would have for the purpose of transparency not just for law would have projected to us the result of what the card reader that they used displayed about the people that went through the card reader verification, that singular act puts a dent on the credibility of the election.

“The second one is the issue we raised about the number of registered voters, vis-à-vis what the chairman now called collated voters. It means that 1.6 million people are missing in the voter’s register. We think that issue is substantial enough to require a resolution.

“We also believed that the difference between the accredited voters and the vote cast which came to about 750,000 votes is an issue to be looked at. Finally, we believed that the cancellations that took place in the election impacting 2.7 million voters required be looked into seriously.

“So, in our view this election required to be looked at again and possibly we would have had rerun, more importantly, we think that INEC should have looked consciously to the use of the card reader, the absence of card reader is a major violation in the elections. It renders that election null and void and that’s what the chairman promised us.

“So, for us in the PDP, we believe that this is a new low in Nigeria’s electoral history. Since 2015 we believe that Nigeria would have been making progress in the election, but violence in this election, the issues that have arisen in this election, lack of transparency that we saw in this election did not increase, and neither did it improve the belief of Nigerians in the electoral process.

“However, the PDP remains a very lawful party. We believe in the law; we believe in the constitution of Nigeria. We are committed democrats. PDP is a party that entrenched democracy in Nigeria, the PDP is the party that made it possible for Nigeria to enjoy the fruit and dividend of democracy.

“We will continue to support democracy in Nigeria, we will continue to promote democracy in Nigeria but we have a good message for Nigerians. We want them to remain peaceful. We will explore all our options, including the belief that the legal process in Nigeria is one of the way to resolve issues.”

 

INEC sophistry

Before unveiling the final result, Professor Yakubu had made a startling confession when he admitted that the number of accredited voters and the total number of votes cast in the  presidential election did not add up.

The Chief Returning Officer for the electoral process, however, said the discrepancy in the figure was a non-issue without any substantial impact on the outcome of the presidential election result.

He said:”Some of the state collation officers for the presidential elections have also made detailed submission explaining what happened during the conduct of the elections on Saturday 23 February and in some cases, the elections repeated in places where it couldn’t hold on Sunday 24. We are studying these documents as well.

“But I think in relation to the issues raised, there are specifically three of them that the Commission wishes to make preliminary statements on. It is a preliminary statement because during collation we haven’t had all the time in the world to look at these issues in depth.

“The first one is that the figures of accredited voters in relation to the votes cast weren’t adding up in one or two instances .

We have noticed that and our preliminary investigation and analysis revealed that there are a number of figures that were coming from the field and we are adding up and the state were also adding up from a 17, 600 locations,  nationwide as polling units and voting point. From there,  the figures were added up first at the ward level which we have 8,809  nationwide. From there to the local government nationwide from which we have 774 and then the state declaration or collation centres

From what we have seen, the disparity cumulatively isn’t up to 2%. So, it isn’t that substantial really.

“Secondly, we also very strongly believe  that the widespread incidence of ballot box snatching particularly in many areas after voting means that you have a data on the smart card reader but not backed up actual ballot. The ballot were either hijacked, burnt down or destroyed and therefore, the information on the smart card reader was slightly to be higher than the actual   on the ballot box. But this is only  by way of preliminary way of investigation. Yes, we believe that we had cancellation,  however in the case of the presidential elections, the cancellation did not affect the conclusion of the process.”

Responding to the observation earlier  by Chief Osita Chidoka that the Smart Card Reader was rarely used to authenticate eligible voters in the North and also  verify actual number of accredited voters and total votes cast, the INEC chairman said it was not a demand backed by relevant laws guiding the conduct of the election and appealed to the PDP agent  to allow him process with the announcement of the results.

“Thirdly, a  request was made about opening up the Commission backend so that information from the Smart Card Reader particularly accreditation of voters can be used to verify, cross check the actual voters for the election.

“I am happy to note that the person who made that comment didn’t make the request as a matter of right under the law. Rather, he made the comment as a matter of openness and transparency.

“Since a law prescribes the processes by which results are collated and admitted and also the instruments to be used for that purpose, we believe that this is a discussion that can continue after the conclusion of this process, because it isn’t something that should necessarily truncate this process until we are able to determine those issues.

“If we are to continue to discuss this, we shall continue to discuss them ad infinitum, there isn’t no end to this discussion. So, we have taken all the observations made, we will take them into consideration but for the sake of the process for  today, I crave your indulgence to go to the issue which we are gathered here today.”

 

Oshiomhole’s belligerence

While receiving his Certificate of Return from INEC, President Buhari promised to be magnanimous in victory, while promising to run an inclusive administration.

He said: “I wish to sincerely congratulate all the presidential candidates and their teams on a solid campaign. We may have held different views but one thing most of us have in common is the love of our country and our desire to improve conditions of lives of Nigerians. From the local to the international observers, it is obvious that the elections were both free and fair.

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“Now that the elections are over and a winner declared, we must all see it as a victory for Nigeria, our dear country. This is why I thank my teeming supporters in a speech I read early today not to gloat. “Our God-given victory is enough cause  for joy, without rubbishing the opposition. All Nigerians going forward must live in brotherhood for a bright and fulfilling future. I therefore want to assure that we will engage all parties in the best interest of Nigeria.

“Our government will remain inclusive and our doors will remain open. This is the way to build a country of our dream. We must serve Nigeria with our hearts and strength.”

Buhari’s  admonition and the sober acceptance of the INEC chairman that the process was inherently flawed appear to have fallen on deaf ears as the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole dismissed Atiku Abubakar as a bad loser.

The former Edo state governor, who was a victim of electoral heist until his first mandate was restored by the Court of Appeal, dismissed Atiku Abubakar as a bad loser with a false entitlement to Nigeria’s Presidency.

The APC chairman further disclosed that his party “might also choose to also cross petition because there were many areas we can dispute. In Adamawa State, he had already lost the election before he did some magic that gave him that narrow victory in the state.

“As I speak, we have petition that we have written to INEC on how we were rigged out in Akwa Ibom state and it is interesting that it is the PDP that is complaining about rigging in Akwa Ibom. How do you explain that INEC cancelled so many units in several states in other to be able to declare PDP candidates winners? That was how Senator Akpabio was rigged out in Akwa Ibom state.

“In my local government,  25 units were cancelled due to the carelessness or mischief of the electoral officer deployed. We lost about 5,000 votes in my local government. “

 

Agbakoba cynical refrain

The PDP presidential candidate has since filed his petition, but a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN) and former President of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba, has expressed reservations over the capacity of the Supreme Court to deliver justice in the case.

Agbakoba claimed that by his refusal to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law and the suspension of embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen,  President Buhari  had weakened the judiciary and the electoral processes before the elections.

He said: “What appears to play out in the last four years was President Buhari’s deliberate decisions to weaken great institutions, the judiciary, the police, security agencies, everything is weak and under his control. That is dangerous and he has benefited from the weak institutions. How do we build strong institutions is an issue Nigerians who are interested in democracy must confront now.”