Atiku’s Server ‘Results’ Fake — INEC | Nairalaw

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has accused
PDP’s presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar,
of manufacturing results of the last presidential election to prove
his case at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

The electoral umpire filed its response on Thursday at the
tribunal in Abuja. It distanced itself from an electronic sheet
that purportedly contained the genuine results of the presidential
election.

Mr Abubakar’s legal team submitted the sheet at the tribunal
last month, contending it was obtained from an internal compilation
of results on INEC’s Internet server.

The team, amongst other submissions, said Mr Abubakar won by
more than six million votes, but his victory was allegedly
suppressed by the commission in favour of incumbent President
Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Abubakar was derided by supporters of the ruling All
Progressives Congress after the claim became public. Mr Buhari’s
campaign also wrote to the police and the State Security Service to
launch a criminal investigation against Mr Abubakar. It accused him
of maliciously accessing INEC’s files.

INEC’s response

The umpire said it, “does not share information with such an
unclassified entity and any information purportedly derived
therefrom which does not accord with the result as declared by INEC
is not authentic but rather was invented for the purpose” of the
tribunal, according to excerpts of the filings seen by our
reporter.

In the 291-page response, INEC said it did not transmit results
via electronic channels, but used manual collation as stipulated by
law. It, however, did not say whether it collated results from
across the country and compiled them on an Internet-enabled
computer.

INEC specifically denies the existence of electronic
transmission of results and it is unknown to the Electoral Act 2010
(as amended),” it said.
Mr Buhari was declared winner of the polls with about 3.9 million
votes. He will be sworn in for a second term on May 29.