The presidential candidate of the Action Congress in the April 21 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Monday presented 15 “Ghana-must-go‘‘ bags of documents to the Presidential Election Tribunal in Abuja.
The documents were admitted as exhibits by the tribunal without objection by Chief Wole Olanipekun(SAN), counsel to President Umaru Yar’Adua and Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.
The lawyer to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), also did not object.
Abubakar and the AC are seeking the cancellation of the poll on grounds of unlawful exclusion, rigging, violence and non-elegibility by Yar‘Adua and Jonathan.
The bags contained lists of presidential candidates posted by INEC on its website and notice boards nationwide as those validly nominated by their parties to contest the election. The lists, however, did not have Abubakar’s name in them.
Also contained in the bags are the presidential election results as published on INEC website. The results show that no score was recorded for the former vice-president in the election.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu, had while announcing the results of the election on April 23, said that Abubakar scored 2,637,848 as against the 24, 638,063 polled by Yar’Adua.
Besides the former VP and Yar’Adua, 23 other presidential candidates contested the election.
Abubakar also submitted a copy of the South African Mail newspaper of April 26,2007 which reported that ballot papers for the presidential election were to be printed only three days to the election as part of the exhibits.
A May 3, 2007 story by the South African Guardian on how the ballot papers were abandoned after printing and how some were air freighted from South Africa on the eve of the poll also formed part of the evidence.
The bags also contained a copy of Daily Trust of August 17, 2007 in which Yar‘ Adua allegedly admitted that all the INEC commissioners were appointed from a list submitted by the Peoples Democratic Party.
In the publication, the President was quoted as saying that he intended to reverse the practice by setting up an Electoral Reform Panel.
Ballot papers used during the election which show that they were printed by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc and not in South Africa as claimed by INEC were parts of the exhibits. The ballot papers did not carry serial numbers as required by the Electoral Act.
The exhibits include forms and documents used by INEC in conducting the election and the declared results in 15 states.
The states are Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Katsina, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun and Oyo.
Counsel to Abubakar, Mr. Ricky Tafa (SAN), claimed that some of the results tendered were contradictory.
He said, “The documents we tendered are to show to a large extent the unlawful exclusion of the petitioners.
“The results of the election from the polling booths to the state levels also revealed that those recorded manually were different from the electronic results and those posted on INEC website.‘‘
The tribunal presided over by Justice James Ogebe adjourned till Tuesday (today) for Abubakar to tender documents from the remaining states.
By Tobi So/niyi and Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja
The Punch
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
