Uphold INEC’s pronouncement that I won 21 States – Atiku tells Tribunal

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) claimed that Atiku Abubakar won in 21 states as not yet been challenged by the commission or any other parties before the Presidential Election Petition Court, according to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate.

In his last written statement before the court, the former vice president asked the Election Petition Court to confirm INEC’s declaration that he won 21 states in the election on February 25.

The letter was submitted on July 20 in support of his joint petition with the PDP asking INEC to revoke its pronouncement that Bola Tinubu won the election.

The PDP presidential candidate won 21 states in the just concluded presidential election, according to INEC’s response to Atiku’s petition.

Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara are the states named by INEC.

He argued that the Tribunal should proceed to maintain the declaration because INEC, which made independent claims that he won states, failed to refute such claims throughout the hearings.

The final written address included the following, among other things: “Very notably, the 1st Respondent (INEC), which administered the election, made an open admission in paragraph 18 of its Reply to the Petition, where it unequivocally declared the following:

“The 1st Respondent further avers that in compliance with extant laws and regulations, it diligently discharged its duties when it collated the 1st Petitioner’s (Atiku) scores at the election which aggregates to 6,984,520 winning only 21 States to wit: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.’

“Indeed, as admitted by the 1st Respondent (INEC), the 1st Petitioner (Atiku) won in these 21 states. It is important to note that throughout the trial, the ist Respondent (INEC) neither refuted nor countermanded this critical averment nor denied it.

“We urge your Lordship to hold that this constitutes an admission that requires no further proof. It also constitutes an admission against interest.

“The 1st Petitioner (Atiku) contested election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of the 2nd Petitioner, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which held on 25th February 2023, along with 17 other candidates, including the 2nd Respondent, (Tinubu) who was the candidate of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in whose favour the electoral body, the ‘Independent’ National Electoral Commission (INEC) manipulated the technologies earlier put in place to ensure transparency, and wrongfully returned the said 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) as the winner at about 4.00 am on Ist March 2023, at a time the 1st Respondent admitted that substantial percentage of the results had not been transmitted to the collation system for verification as required by law.”

Therefore, Atiku Abubakar is pleading with the court to uphold INEC’s claim in the proceedings and declare him the victor of the election on February 25.

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