The Presidential Election Tribunal has struck out one of the major pillars of the petition by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party: the witness statement by Osita Chidoka, a former aviation minister, about the existence of INEC server.
Chidoka was Atiku’s National Collation Officer and testified as a star witness.
The tribunal, in striking out the statement concurred with the request by President Muhamadu Buhari and ruled that the statement was incompetent, having been filed in violation of the provision of the Electoral Act.
Chidoka was Atiku’s star witness and witness Number 62.
He had testified that an INEC server, where election results were stored existed, based on what he claimed INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu consistently said.
But cross-examined by INEC’s lawyer, Yunus Usman, he admitted he had never seen the server.
“I have not seen the server but INEC consistently told us of the server and the INEC Chairman at the national collation of results of the election acknowledged the existence of the server.”
Pushed further by Usman, he admitted he was at the national collation centre and that the result was tallied manually.
During the proceedings at the tribunal in July, he even sought to amend his statement. The tribunal rejected the request, following the objection by Buhari’s lawyers.
The Tribunal on Wednesday also struck out some other documents and portions of some processes filed by the petitioners
