Pres. tribunal: We don’t have server – INEC replies Atiku, PDP

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied
being in possession of the server where results of the February 23
presidential election were uploaded.

INEC’s position was made known at the ongoing Presidential
Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja challenging the outcome of the
election.

Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had
through their lawyers led by Levy Uzoukwu (SAN) asked the tribunal
to compel INEC to grant them access to the server and smart card
readers used in the conduct of the election.

But counsel to INEC, Yunus Ustaz Usman (SAN) in a counter
affidavit asked the court to dismiss the application.

“They are asking us to bring something we don’t have,” he
said.

He drew the attention of the tribunal to its judgment on March 6
granting PDP access to inspect only election materials without the
server.

Counsel to President Muhammadu Buhari, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and
the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lateef Fagnemi (SAN) both
asked the court to dismiss the application for failing to disclose
the existence of the server.

Atiku had claimed that results from the INEC server showed that
he scored a total of 18,356,732 as against 16,741,430 votes by
Buhari.

INEC had through manual collation announced President Buhari
winner of the election with 15,191,847 votes with Atiku polling 11,
262,978.

The proceeding was witnessed by the vice presidential candidate
of the PDP, Peter Obi, who represented the presidential candidate,
Atiku Abubakar, and the former chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, who represented
President Buhari.

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