Atiku Abubakar, a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has submitted a 66-page petition to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) alleging that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) used a third-party device to intercept and switch the results of the February 25 presidential election in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Bola Tinubu. Atiku claimed that INEC had redeployed its in-house ICT expert, Mr Chidi Nwafor, and replaced him with an IT consultant, Mr Suleiman Farouk, who helped install the third-party mechanism.
According to Atiku, the third-party device was used to intercept and filter the results before releasing them to the IReV portal. Atiku also claimed that INEC failed to ensure compliance with the electronic transmission of accreditation data and results, creating an opportunity for the figures to be manipulated to favour the APC.
The petitioners have pledged to lead evidence to show that there were no technical glitches that prevented the upload and transmission of polling unit results and the accreditation data of the presidential election. They allege that what happened was a bypass to tilt and switch the results of the election in favour of the APC.
Atiku and the PDP have also argued that Tinubu did not secure at least one-quarter of the votes cast in the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. They claim that to be declared duly elected, a candidate must receive at least one quarter of the votes cast in the FCT, Abuja, in addition to obtaining not less than a quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of all the states.
The petitioners have requested that the court declare Tinubu’s election as unlawful, unconstitutional, and of no effect, and hold that Atiku be returned as the winner of the presidential election or that a second election be conducted between Atiku and Tinubu. Alternatively, they have asked the court to nullify the presidential election and order a re-run.
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