Atiku presents 15 bags of exhibits against Yar’Adua

Lanre Adewole, Abuja - 27.11.2007

A five-man Court of Appeal panel serving as the Presidential Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja on Monday admitted in evidence exhibits packed in 15 “Ghana must go” bags against the victory of President Umaru Yar’Adua in the April 21 presidential election.

The documents were tendered by the candidate of the Action Congress (AC) in the election, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku wants the tribunal to void Yar’Adua’s election on the grounds that he was unlawfully excluded from the poll and that the poll was characterised by rigging and violence.

The petitioner is also contesting the qualification of Yar’Adua and his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, to contest the election. The exhibits contained forms and documents used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in conducting the poll and the declared results in 15 states.

The states include Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu and Imo. Others are Katsina, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun and Oyo. Counsel for Atiku, Mr. Ricky Tafa (SAN), said that some of the results tendered were contradictory.

“The documents we tendered were to show to a large extent the unlawful exclusion of the petitioners. “The results of the elections from the polling booths to the states levels also revealed that those recorded manually were different from the electronic results and those pasted on INEC website,” he said.

Counsel for Yar’Adua and Jonathan, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), and INEC counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), did not oppose the admissibility of the documents.

The tribunal, presided over by Justice James Ogebe, adjourned till today, for the petitioner to tender documents from the remaining states.