A retired army captain, Joe Agada, who served as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state collation agent in Kogi State yesterday told the presidential election petition court sitting in Abuja that he was forced to sign the result sheets after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) allegedly refused to give him copies of the documents.
He was called by the PDP presidential candidate in the election, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, as one of the witnesses to testify before the court.
Recall that Atiku and his party are contesting the victory of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president.
Agada, who was the first witness, told the court that there were “rampant cases of manipulation of electoral records” by officials of INEC during the polls.
Agada, a retired army captain, served as PDP’s state collation agent in Kogi for the presidential election.
“BVAS machines were manipulated during the conduct of the (presidential) election.
“I was forced to sign the collated result sheets in Lokoja,” he said.
The witness said he visited over 20 polling units in two senatorial districts of Kogi state and watched how forms EC8A, EC8B and EC8C were signed under duress by the PDP agents as a condition for them to be issued with the result sheets.
In his own evidence, PDP’s Ogun State collation officer, Mr. Solarin Adekunle, said he declined to certify the results in protest against election fraud.
Adekunle alleged that election results were inflated.
The third witness, Mr. Uzoma Abonta, told the court that the election was a nullity on account of “many irregularities, discrepancies and noncompliance” with electoral guidelines.
