Yahaya Shiko, a retired major, who served as the collation agent for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kaduna South Local Government of Kaduna State during the presidential election, has alleged that February 23 election were doctored in his presence in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party.
Yaahoo Journalist reports that Shiko made this claim while speaking before the Presidential Election Tribunal on Thursday.
The retired major, who is the 20th petitioners’ witness of PDP at the Tribunal, said the election in his area was marred by over-voting and allocation of figures to political parties that participated in the election.
Yaahoo Journalist recalls that the PDP challenged the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC in the presidential election.
Shiko, who was commissioned as an officer of the Nigerian Army in 1993, was on Thursday, led by the petitioners’ lawyer, Adebayo Adelodun (SAN), to adopt his earlier statement on oath as his evidence-in-chief.
The retired major, while been cross-examined by APC’s lawyer, Charles Edosomwan, said that his account of irregularities during the election in his area was based on the reports he received from polling units agents and the ones he personally witnessed.
His words: “My statement was based on the reports I received from the polling unit agents and what I saw on the result sheets which were forwarded to the Local Government collation centre.”
“There were cases of overvoting, and allocation of figures.”
“These were what were carried to the Local Government collation centre.”
“In my presence, the results were doctored.”
Answering a question asked by the counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission, Yunus Usman (SAN), he noted that he protested the doctored results by refusing to sign the result sheets.
“Figures were wrongly credited to the APC.”
“At the collation centre, I made complaints when the results were announced and I protested by refusing to append my signature to the result sheets.”
When asked, he said he did not know his complaints were criminal in nature.
Also asked if he was aware, if any of the perpetrators were arrested and prosecuted, he said, “It is not for me to know.”