Twelve witnesses, on Wednesday, testified against the Kaduna State Governor of All Progressives Congress, APC, Nasir El-Rufai at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Kaduna.
The witnesses told the tribunal that the March 9 governorship elections in which the governor was declared winner by independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, did not hold in many polling units of Kaduna North Local Government Area of the state.
All the 12 witnesses testified on behalf of the petitioners, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Alhaji Isa Ashiru.
They also said phantom votes were added to the APC candidate to declared him winner of the governorship elections by INEC in Polling units where elections was held.
The witnesses said INEC officials did not show up at many polling units in the local government on March 9th.
A witness identified as Dan-Auta Mohammed, told the tribunal that elections did not take place at his polling Unit 003.
“I was surprised that INEC announced the result of an election that never took place,” he said.
Another witness Simon Kester, also said election did not hold in polling unit 018, but INEC released a result from that same polling unit which had no stamp or signature on it.
Sani Musa Danburan of polling unit 009 said, as an agent of his party, he could confirm elections did not hold in his polling Unit on March 9.
“Even the result from INEC didn’t have stamp of the presiding officer,” he said.
Mr. Benjamin Augustine, a witness who served as an agent of the PDP at Hayin Banki Ward collation centre, equally said phantom votes were added for the APC on the purported INEC certified result sheet which was different from the pink copy given to him at the end of the collation exercise.
He tendered the pink copy given to him by collation officer to the court which it was adopted by the court as an exhibit.
Aliyu Mohammad, another witness who served as a PDP agent in polling units 006, said election did not take place in his polling unit, but surprisingly, “I was later shown the result of the election purported to have emanated from INEC without the official stamp.”
All the witnesses, who served as agents of the petitioners in Kaduna North, told the tribunal that INEC officials never showed up at their polling units on the March 9th 2019 governorship elections.
Ibrahim Bako-led Tribunal adjourned to June 20th for continuation of hearing after taking 12 witnesses.
Daily Trust gathered that about 30 witnesses from Zaria and Kaduna North Local Government Areas had testified against the Independent National Electoral Commission.
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