The Independent National Electoral
Commission on Monday in Abuja informed the Justice Ambrosa Suleiman-led
Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that the Nigerian
Army lied when it submitted that there was no election in Rivers State.
Some top officials of the army had, in
their separate testimonies before the tribunal, insisted that the
governorship poll in Rivers State was marred by widespread violence and
irregularities.
But INEC told the tribunal that the
army, in its efforts to discredit the outcome of the April 11
governorship poll in Rivers State, sent soldiers that gave false
evidence before the panel.
At the resumed hearing on the petition
by the All Progressives Congress and its governorship candidate, Dr.
Dakuku Peterside, INEC produced eight witnesses that contradicted the
evidence by the Nigerian Army.
The witnesses, who were all presiding
officers who conducted the election, informed the tribunal that the
governorship election was peaceful and devoid of any form of violence.
While tendering result sheets from the
various local government areas as evidence, the witnesses told the
tribunal that they resorted to the use of manual accreditation of voters
following the failure of card reader machines.
The witnesses also tendered the
incidence forms that were filled by voters when the electronic devices
could not recognise their voter cards.
According to them, they personally submitted the result sheets at the collation centre.
The PW 12, Onyije Ifeanyi, who is a
former member of the National Youth Service Corps, told the tribunal
that he was the presiding officer that was in charge of
Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA.
He said, “My Lords, I took the result to
the collation centre myself where I had to wait for my turn because
there were other presiding officers that also came to submit their own.
It is not true that there was violence at the area I covered. There was
no incident of invasion by armed men or shootings. The election was
peacefully conducted and everything went successfully.”
According to him, a total of 114 voters
were accredited with the card reader machines, adding that his unit
recorded 39 cases of unsuccessful accreditations.
In his testimony, the PW 13, Tubonini
Mcbala, who was the presiding officer at Unit 8, ward 1 at Degema LGA,
insisted that the election was peaceful.
He told the tribunal that the election was monitored by agents of the APC.
While being cross-examined by the
counsel for the petitioners, Chief Akinolu Olujimi (SAN), the witness
said, “My Lords, there was no incident of shooting or thugs carting away
election materials. Any soldier that comes before this tribunal to
testify that there was violence is telling lies.
“As the presiding officer, I was there
from the beginning of the election to the end. There was no soldier at
the polling unit the only security agents we saw were the police and the
Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and they were all without
arms.”
Sequel to an application by the APC and
Peterside, the tribunal subpoenaed the Chief of Army Staff to produce
some of the soldiers that were deployed to the state during the election
to appear and testify before it.
The soldiers, in their separate
testimonies, told the tribunal that the election was marred by
irregularities such as violence and gunshots by thugs, a situation they
said scared voters away.
The four Army Captains who testified
included Garba Sani, who was in charge of Tai Local Government Area;
Abubakar Mohammed from Bony Camp Lagos, Fred Bala from Maiduguri and Isa
Almakura.
They had told the tribunal that they led different troops that were deployed to Rivers State during the election.
They took turns to testify that armed
thugs attacked INEC officials at different local government areas in the
state and carted away election materials, adding that no election took
place at Tai LGA.
Specifically, Almakura, who covered
Ikwerri LGA, along with 30 other soldiers, told the tribunal that at a
time, his team got confused by the “bombardment of phone calls” from
INEC ad hoc staff who he said were shouting for help and begging to be
rescued from thugs that invaded their polling units.
On our arrival at polling units in
Osuala, Onuerelu, Omerelu and Alu, we found the INEC ad hoc staff,
mainly corps members, mercilessly beaten by the thugs,” he added.
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