Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, closed his case at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
Abubakar and his party closed their case after calling 62 witnesses out of the 400 earlier penciled down to give oral testimony in an effort to prove that he won this year’s presidential election.
The former vice president is challenging the outcome of the February 23 election on the grounds that the result was manipulated to favour President Muhammad Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with 15,191,847 votes, against his closest 11,262,978 votes.
His Counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), had informed the tribunal that they would not be calling any other witness after the star witness, former Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and one-time minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka, was called in after the tribunal reconvened from the traditional one-hour break.
Read Also: Atiku, PDP show video to prove use of server for polls
Fully prepared to expose all he knew about the INEC central server, Chidoka informed the tribunal that he was the National Collation Agent and Head of PDP Situation Room for the election.
Upon cross-examination by INEC Counsel, Yunus Usman (SAN), he admitted that he was not there when results were transmitted or seen the INEC server. He, however, told the tribunal that the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, had consistently told them at various times during meetings preceding the polls that a server would be used for the purpose of electronic transmission of results.
Chidoka said he was there when the results were collated by INEC and that it was done manually. Though he could not disclose the serial number of the server in which results were transmitted to by party agents, he reminded the INEC Counsel that card reader was not mentioned in their meetings with Yakubu, but it was used in the election.