The presidential candidate of PDP, Atiku ON MONDAY plays video clips to collaborate evidence at tribunal

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, Monday played a video recording at the election petition tribunal where a Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini admitted that the electoral body would transmit election results with the use of smart card readers to the INEC central server.

Igini spoke with Channels Television shortly before the election was conducted.

Atiku’s counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, had tendered 48 combat disc and admitted by the tribunal as part of efforts to substantiate alleged rigging against the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Uche who led Atiku and PDP legal team at the Appeal proceedings, tendered the 48 video recordings through Mr. Segun Showumi, one of the media aides to the PDP presidential candidate.

During the play of one of the recordings, the INEC REC for Akwa Ibom State was emphatic when he told the Channels TV crew that the electoral body would surely use smart card to transmit election results into the INEC server.

However, under cross-examination by INEC led counsel, Yunus Usman, Atiku’s witness admitted that Igini was not the official spokesman for INEC.

Meanwhile, Buhari through his counsel, Alex Izinyon had sought to play counter-video recording tomorrow.

In another video recording, played in the courtroom, INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu expressed optimism before the election that the Commission would use the electronic system during the conduct of the 2019 general elections.

Earlier, the tribunal chairman, Justice Mohammed Garba had dismissed the objection by Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to tendering and playing of the said video recording before the tribunal on the ground that they were not frontloaded.

Justice Garba held that both Buhari, APC and INEC are bound by the pre-hearing report they freely signed to the effect that documents to be tendered from the bar can only be opposed at the final address stage.

The tribunal chairman in the unanimous ruling also held that none of the four parties to the agreement can renege on any of the terms and, therefore, admitted the video clips as rendered by the two petitioners through their star witness.

Also, three witnesses Babagana Kukawa, Abana Pogu and Suleiman Mohamed Bulama from Borno and Yobe states had testified that voters in the two states were harassed, intimidated and threatened farmers to either vote for APC or risk being ejected from their farmlands.

In his evidence, Bulama alleged that the APC used soldiers to molest ,attack and injure some voters suspected to be sympathetic to PDP. He also alleged village and district heads were allegedly used to coerce the voters into voting for Buhari.

But hearing was scheduled to continue from tomorrow.