Aliyu Bello, the witness for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the ongoing governorship election petition proceedings held in Lafia, Nasarawa State, disclosed that there were instances of compromised votes in several wards across the state during the March 18 election, which aimed to prevent the incumbent from securing reelection.
During the resumed tribunal session, Bello, in response to cross-examination, revealed that contrary to the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) claims that the APC inflated figures to secure Governor Sule’s victory, it was, in fact, the PDP that had manipulated the numbers.
He informed the tribunal that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had nullified the elections in the Ashige electoral ward within Lafia local government area and issued Form EC40G as confirmation.
Addressing the concerns raised by the petitioners regarding alleged reductions in their votes in Gayam, Chiroma (Lafia LGA), Kanje Abuni, and Azara (Awe LGA), Bello contested that there was no tampering with the petitioners’ votes in those areas. The recorded figures were consistent with their actual scores.
Regarding the tables presented by the petitioners, suggesting a lead of 4130 votes, Bello, who is also the APC secretary in the state, pointed out discrepancies in the table’s accuracy. He highlighted instances where the second respondent’s (APC’s) votes were diminished, and the petitioners’ votes were artificially inflated.
Bello illustrated instances where discrepancies occurred, such as in Kofar Alhaji Mukhtar where APC’s score was 160, but it was entered as 65. Similarly, in Angwan Nupuwa Polling Unit 006, APC’s tally of 200 was reduced to 184 in Form EC8 B at the Ward Collation Level.
He further identified the misallocation of votes and inaccuracies in the calculation of the APC’s scores, with several instances where the party’s votes were wrongly attributed to the PDP. He referred to Form EC8 As and Form EC8 Bs from various Polling Units where proper collation and recording were not followed.
In summary, Bello underlined that various instances of miscalculations, omissions, and manipulations had affected the All Progressives Congress’ votes and unfairly benefited the People’s Democratic Party.
