By: Ifeanyi Izeze<\/p>\n
The news today, Monday 29th July, 2019, that the Independent National
\nElectoral Commission INEC, failed to call witnesses to counter claims of
\nmisdemeanour against the commission by the Peoples Democratic Party
\n(PDP) and its presidential candidate in the February 23 presidential
\npoll Atiku Abubakar, must have come as a rude shock to all Nigerians
\nseeking to know the truth in the ServerGate controversy.<\/p>\n
The electoral body who is the first Respondent was supposed to call its
\nwitnesses, Monday 29th but rather announced to the court that the
\ncommission does not have any witness\/evidence to present and would
\nrather rely on the proceedings at the tribunal as its defence. In what
\nlooks like a dramatic turnaround, INEC chickened out at the hearing of
\nthe Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).<\/p>\n
Now, INEC is the main culprit, they announced Buhari as winner and yet
\nhave no witnesses, no forms nor backend data to tender? Is this not
\ncurious?<\/p>\n
Glaringly, the commission has no one to confirm its denial of the
\nexistence of a backend server used in its electronic collation of
\nresults. This is an obvious sign that the commission is overwhelmed by
\nthe convincing evidence\/testimonies of witnesses presented by Atiku and
\nthe PDP.<\/p>\n
INEC should be meant to understand that opting to respond to the
\nallegations and issues raised and established by the petitioners just by
\nwritten addresses simply to avoid cross examination, is at best being
\nclever by half and the PEPT should not allow this because it\u2019s not
\nonly dubious, it is equally criminal as the people of Nigeria deserve to
\nknow what transpired and how INEC arrived at the decision to announce
\nBuhari as winner of the poll.<\/p>\n
The public is aware that contrary to what INEC would want Nigerians
\nbelieve, data forensic experts at the PEPT were able to successfully
\nestablish that figures being bandied around by the commission for the
\nFebruary presidential poll defies mathematical and statistical logic
\nmostly in the southern region of the country due to electoral
\nmanipulation.<\/p>\n
The data shows that the election was heavily manipulated in the Southern
\npart of Nigeria. A turnout ratio that is less than 29.5 percent for the
\nSouthern part of Nigeria is not statistically possible. Even the North
\nEast that is battling with insurgencies and humanitarian crisis has a
\nturnout that is above 60 percent. So whosoever orchestrated the
\nmanipulation of the election results actually did it clinically to
\nconfuse future investigation.<\/p>\n
From the INEC data as obtained from the commission\u2019s server, the PDP
\npresidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar won in the South with a margin of
\n3.2 million. The winning margin would have been more if votes from
\nRivers state were available. In the North we had (Atiku-9.23 m,
\nBuhari-10.68) showing that President Buhari won in the North with a
\nmargin of 1.45 million votes.<\/p>\n
Total accreditation for the presidential election was 37.6 million;
\nTotal voided votes were 1.23 million and; Total votes cast – 36.4
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
A total of 8.68 million votes were depleted from the votes of both
\nBuhari and Atiku nationwide but with Atiku Abubakar being the NETT loser
\nof 7.09 million votes.<\/p>\n
The unlawful depletion of votes is the reason why the election conducted
\nby INEC defies statistical and mathematical rationality.<\/p>\n
Probing the entire Southwest, Southeast, and South south presidential
\nresults, it was glaring from the INEC data that while PVC collection
\nwent up by 34.4 percent (24.18m \u2013 32.49m), total votes in the Southern
\npart of Nigeria declined by 23.4 percent (from 12m to 9.19m). On the
\nother hand, the e-collated result shows a positive relationship between
\nPVC collection and total votes in the Southern part of Nigeria. PVC
\ncollection went up by 34.4 percent and total votes in the Southern part
\nof Nigeria grew by 26.6 percent (from 12m to 15.2m).<\/p>\n
For the 19 northern states and FCT, while PVC collection went up by 25.6
\npercent (32m \u2013 40.2m), total votes in the region increased marginally
\nby 6 percent (from 16.2m to 17.2m). On the other hand, the e-collated
\nresult shows a positive relationship between PVC collection and total
\nvotes in the Northern part of Nigeria. PVC collection went up by 25.6
\npercent and total votes in the region grew by 22.7 percent (from 16.22m
\nto 19.91m).<\/p>\n
Statistics for the entire nation (36 states and FCT) show that PVC
\ncollection went up by 29 percent while changes in marginal votes went
\ndown by 2.8 percent (manual collation) and for electronic collation,
\nchanges in marginal votes increased up by 23.8 percent.<\/p>\n
Logically, a significant increase in PVC collection ought to translate
\ninto an increase in voters\u2019 turnout or total votes cast. Therefore,
\nthe e-collated result proves a fact that the 2019 election was
\nmanipulated.<\/p>\n
The authentic result that should have been declared by INEC would have
\nhad Atiku\/PDP with 18.35 million votes as the winner while President
\nBuhari\/APC with 16.7 million votes as the first runner up. The other
\npresidential candidates cumulatively garnered 1.3 million votes.<\/p>\n
It is now understandable why some people love to argue that the Nigerian
\nconstitution does not recognise e-voting. They are only trying to be
\nclever by half because it is only someone with dubious intentions that
\nwould prefer the manually collated result without audit re-confirmation.<\/p>\n
Yes the constitution does not recognise e-voting but e-collation and
\ne-transmission are simply known as process automation. An organisation
\ndoes not need constitutional amendments to automate their tasks,
\nprocedures and processes.<\/p>\n
So it is very clear that the February 23, 2019 Nigerian Presidential
\npoll was rigged. The PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar clearly won the
\nelection but INEC has continued to deny him the stolen mandate but there
\nis no level of intimidation or propaganda overdrive that can deny the
\nobvious. God bless Nigeria!<\/p>\n