,Wednesday in the Presidential Election Petition, PDP witness raises allegation of $10,000 bribe against INEC officer at tribunal

A witness for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Peter Ali,Wednesday in the Presidential Election Petition alleged that an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Abubakar Kaura was found with a whooping sum of $10,000 dollars on the day of election.

Ali who said he was the ward collation officer also alleged that the $10,000 dollars was a bribe for the INEC officer to manipulate the outcome of the election results in the area of Nasarawa State.

Under cross-examination by INEC counsel, Yunus Usman, SAN, Ali admitted he reported the matter to the police which he claimed was later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Bureau for further investigation.

When asked if he knew whether anyone was charged for the said allegation, he affirmed he did not know and, even added that he doesn’t have any report concerning the outcome of the investigation.

Also, the INEC counsel asked him to know if he signed form EC88 under duress but in his response, he said he signed it voluntarily mainly because his party won in the ward.

Further, Ali said the allegation he declared before the tribunal was not hearsay evidence but claimed he went on a tip-off to personally witness the alleged $10,000 dollars found in the custody of the INEC officer.

The witness also asserted that out of the 24 units in the ward, he was only able to receive results of 23 units excluding the unit where the allegation was allegedly perpetrated.

Besides, Temeko Sunday, another PDP witness alleged that INEC officers within the areas of his official duty as agent for the opposition party were brazenly rejecting election results from units where it were clearly believed that the PDP won overwhelmingly.