Tribunal: “Atiku manufactured election results”

The Independent National Electoral Commission has described as fake the 2019 election results the PDP and its presidential candidate presented as evidence of malpractice in the Feb 23 presidential election before the election tribunal.

INEC filed its response Thursday at the tribunal in Abuja, denouncing Atiku Abubakar and the electronic sheet he claimed contained the genuine results of the presidential election which INEC said President Muhammadu won with about 4 million vote margin to beat Atiku.

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.

According to the the team, Abubakar won by more than six million votes, but his victory was allegedly suppressed by the commission in favour of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.

“INEC 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,” the response read in part.

In the 291-page response, INEC said it did not transmit results via electronic channels, but used manual collation as stipulated by law.

“INEC specifically denies the existence of electronic transmission of results and it is unknown to the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended),” it said.