Lawyers at the Presidential election tribunal | Credit: ChannelstvHere are some important reasons why the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar will lose his case against the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress APC) at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, and even up to the Supreme Court level. His lawyers know all about the truth but because of greed, still convinced the candidate and PDP to go ahead with the case.
1. Atiku’s Server Argument is a Scam and an expensive one. The Electoral Act as it exists in Nigeria today does not recognize the transmission of results to any Server or Servers anywhere.
2. So, it does not matter whether INEC has a Server or does not have one, or whether there is any information or data on the INEC Servers or not; the law does not recognize it, simple. This means that regardless of what party clowns and petty criminals like Reno Omokri are saying on social media, claiming they have ‘incontrovertible’ proof that INEC has a Server, all of this means nothing before the Law. Whether or not INEC has a Server, whether or not it transmitted any results to this Server, is immaterial before the current Electoral Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Even a 100L Law Student understands this, how come Atiku’s SANs don’t?
3. What Nigerian electoral law as it currently exists recognises is the Form EC8 Series, especially Form EC8A, signed by agents, collation officers, etc, at the Polling Units. The only way to prove election results in Nigeria today is by the approved forms: the EC8 series. Not by any Server or Servers.
4. INEC could not have transmitted any results to any Server (even if the Server existed) because of network connectivity issues around the country. Several parts of Nigeria are not covered by mobile network which is necessary to guarantee successful transmission. Even INEC has explained that this was one of the reasons why it jettisoned the idea of electronic transmission, in addition to the fact that it is not currently supported by law. INEC has repeatedly explained that it used manual collation for the 2019 elections, as stipulated by the existing Electoral Laws of Nigeria.
5. No lawyer worth his salt, arguing an election petition case in Nigeria in 2019, will make an argument based on Servers, phantom or real. This suggests that Atiku’s lawyers are either clowns, or greedy, or both. This is all about milking him as much as possible. After the campaign-milking comes the election-petition-milking. After the election-petition-milking, probably the spiritual-assistance-milking will be the next level.
6. Please help ask: Which of the party agents – of any of the Parties – authenticated any results on a Server post-voting and the counting of votes? If there’s any agent who authenticated any results please let him or her come forward. Truth is that it didn’t happen! The only results party agents authenticated are the ones on Form EC8A, and this is the only evidence that will stand up in court.
7. Atiku and PDP say they got access to INEC Servers from where they retrieved the results they’re bandying about. Let’s even assume that those so-called Servers exist and that there are any results on them (there aren’t!) – do Atiku and PDP realise that illegal and unauthorised access to a Server is a crime under the Cybercrime Act? If you had (illegal) access as you claim to the Server, how do we know you did not manipulate whatever was present on that server, by adding or subtracting numbers, or smuggling extraneous data in? What Atiku and the PDP do not realise is that admitting in a Court of Law that they hacked into the database of a Government agency is itself proof of malicious and criminal conduct. Talk about self-incrimination. Atiku will not only lose the Election Petition case, he will go down in history as a Cyber Hacker and Manipulator.
8. a. Take a look at the results presented by Atiku and the PDP, as their own genuine version of the results obtained from the INEC Server. It is extremely ridiculous, and can only support the theory that Atiku’s lawyers are both clownish and greedy.
b. See Lagos State, where 580,825 people validly voted for Buhari versus 448,015 for Atiku, making a total of 1,028,840. On the other hand, however, Atiku’s fabricated Server results allege that 1,103,297 people voted for him versus 1,422,906 for Buhari, making a total of 2,526,203. In other words, PDP and Atiku are alleging that 1.5 million votes somehow vanished into thin air in the cosmopolitan metropolis that is Lagos State.
c. Meanwhile, two weeks later, in the Governorship election, the total valid votes cast came to about 945,000, which is in consonance with the number that voted in the Presidential election, but nowhere near Atiku’s fabricated claims. How will Atiku explain this 1.5m difference between his fabricated Server result and the INEC Presidential result on the one hand, and his fabricated Server result and the INEC Governorship result on the other hand?
d. This is the pattern in all of Atiku’s fabricated Server results – his figures make no sense whatsoever. They didn’t employ common sense in their fabrications. According to Premium Times, “Mr Abubakar’s purported result implies that no invalid votes were recorded in the 33 states, and none of the 71 other presidential candidates obtained any score. In three states; Abia, Bauchi and Cross River, the documents show that the two candidates collectively got votes higher than the number of accredited voters.” Ridiculous!
9. Atiku’s so-called 400 witnesses which he is presenting in court are far too few to prove or disprove anything, especially in a Presidential Election. His lawyers know this, why are they not telling him the truth? The law says you have to prove your election petition case PU by PU. In the 2014 Osun Election Petition Tribunal alone, PDP originally sought to present 1,000 witnesses. 1,000. Just for Osun State alone. In Ekiti in 2014 APC sought to present 1,009 witnesses in the Governorship Election Petition. Now PDP wants to argue a PRESIDENTIAL election petition – with nationwide coverage – with only 400 witnesses. Joke!
10. Atiku and PDP question the INEC declared result in Borno State claiming that turnout could not have been that high because of the insurgency (Buhari 836,496 vs Atiku 71,788, making a total of 908,284). Guess what Atiku’s fabricated Server results claim: Buhari 849,599 vs Atiku 281,897, making a total of 1,131,496 – more than 200,000 votes higher than the declared INEC results. How does this make sense? How can you question the turnout in Borno on the basis of insurgency, and then go ahead to fabricate numbers that are even higher than what you’re querying?
