- APC witness Aliyu Bello claimed that votes were manipulated to deny the incumbent re-election in Nasarawa’s governorship election
- He countered PDP’s claim of inflated figures, stating errors and reductions in APC’s votes and highlighting form EC8 discrepancies
Aliyu Bello, the All Progressives Congress (APC) witness in the ongoing governorship election petition in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has stated that votes in some wards across the state were depleted in order to deny the incumbent re-election during the March 18 poll.
During cross-examination at the tribunal’s resumed hearing yesterday, he stated that, contrary to the PDP’s claim in its petition that APC inflated figures to give Governor Sule victory, the opposition party was rather guilty of the allegation.
He stated that he was aware that INEC cancelled elections for the Ashige electoral ward in the Lafia local government area and that the electoral body issued Form EC40G in that regard.
Concerning the petitioners’ claim that the INEC reduced their votes in Gayam, Chiroma in Lafia LGA, and Kanje Abuni and Azara in Awe LGA, Bello stated that nobody touched the petitioners’ votes in the aforementioned areas and that what the petitioners scored was what was recorded for them.
On the petitioners’ tables on pages 49 to 51 of their petition, where they claim to be leading by 4130 votes, Bello, who is also the state APC secretary, said the table was incorrect because it contained instances where votes scored by the second respondent were reduced and additions to the number of votes scored by the petitioners.
He stated that the APC vote in Kofar Alhaji Mukhtar was 160 but was only recorded as 65 and that the APC vote in Angwan Nupuwa Polling Unit 006 was 200 but only 184 was recorded in form EC8 B at the Ward Collation Level.
He also stated that the APC scored 152 votes in Angwan Tudun Kofa Polling Unit, but it was reduced by 16 votes and that the APC votes were shortchanged in most polling units across the State. Bello confirmed that there were numerous errors in the calculation and exclusion of votes for the All Progressives Congress, APC, and that his party’s score was assigned to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
He listed form EC8 as some Polling Units where he claimed APC votes were not properly counted during the election.
He also stated that he mentioned form EC8 Bs of some Polling Units where the APC’s scores were not properly captured during the collation of election results for the governorship election, as well as form EC8 Bs of some Polling Units where the PDP depleted his party’s figure.