Nigeria’s electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said it will not comment on the controversy tied to its alleged central server used in the conduct of the 2019 general election.
Concise News learned that Rotimi Oyekanmi, spokesman for the commissions, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this was to avoid sanctions by the election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja.
“The Tribunal gave this warning in its inaugural speech. It is not just acceptable that we continue to discuss what is clearly subjudice. PDP has made a case and it is being argued in court,” Daily Trust quoted Oyekanmi as saying.
“Why is it now being canvassed in the media? Is the purpose to influence the decision of the court? Let us exercise some discretion please and allow the court to take a decision.”
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 elections, Atiku Abubakar, and his party, had asked the tribunal to compel INEC to grant them access to the server and smart card readers used in the conduct of the election.
Atiku and the PDP made the request through their lawyers led by Levy Uzoukwu (SAN).
However, counsel to INEC, Yunus Ustaz Usman (SAN), in a counter affidavit on Thursday, June 13, asked the court to dismiss the application.
“They are asking us to bring something we don’t have,” Usman said.
INEC had announced Buhari winner of the election with 15,191,847 votes with Atiku getting 11, 262,978.
But Atiku and the PDP, this news medium understands, had claimed that results from the INEC server showed that he scored 18,356,732 as against Buhari’s 16,741,430 votes.
