The star witness of Governor Abdullahi Sule in the ongoing Governorship election petition tribunal in Nasarawa State, Aliyu Bello, yesterday told the tribunal that the PDP actually depleted APC votes during the March 18th 2023 governorship election.
Aliyu Bello, who is the state APC secretary, made the confirmation when he appeared before the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to give testimony. He confirmed that the PDP excluded scores of his party during collation.
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While answering questions during cross examination, he confirmed to the tribunal that part of the complaints of the petitioners is the results of Ashige electoral ward, stressing that he is aware that INEC cancelled the results of the ward where the election body issued form EC40 G to that effect.
Bello added that vote of the PDP in Gayam, Ciroma, Kanje/Abuni and Azara wards were not reduced as the petitioners’ claimed on grounds of their petition, and disputed the claim that the PDP would have led by 4,130, insisting that the PDP depleted their scores .
The star witness told the tribunal that Barrister Ayiwulu Baba Ayiwulu who claimed to be the State Collation Agent of the PDP was not even near the collation centre but rather served as the collation agent of his party in Keana LGA.
He said the vote of the APC in Kofar Alhaji Mukhtar was 160 but it was recorded as 65, in Angwan Nupuwa Polling Unit 006 the APC had 200 but 184 was captured in form EC8 B at the Ward Collation Level.
He also said in Angwan Tudun Kofa Polling Unit, the APC scored 152 but it was reduced by 16 votes, adding that the APC was short-changed in votes in most polling units across the State, and the scores allocated to the PDP.
Earlier, Governor Abdullahi Sule’s Lead Counsel Adebayo Adelodu (SAN) sought to tender four sets of documents, praying the tribunal to admit them as exhibits in support of their defense; an application that was not objected to by the counsel to INEC, Ishaka Dikko (SAN) and that of the APC, Dr. Hassan Liman (SAN) but Jibrin Samuel Okutepa (SAN) objected to the admissibility of the documents.
Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, granted the application and marked all the documents as exhibits, just as hearing on the matter has been adjourned till next week Thursday August 24 to Saturday 26, 2023.