PKK Fed Constituency: How PDP thugs almost lynched us - witness
tells tribunal.
By Joseph A Adudu
July 27, 2019.
Hearing
continued on Wednesday at the National and State Assemblies, Tribunal sitting
at high court 3 Jos in a matter between Hon. Timothy Golu of the people’s
democratic party (PDP and petitioners} and Hon. Yausf Gagdi of the All
progressive congress (APC and Respondents) for Pankshin Kanke Kanam (PKK)
Federal constituency
The petitioners on Tuesday closed their
case and the respondents open their defence on Wednesday.
A
witness, Professor Mathew Benard Malau who was INEC returning officer (R.O) for
Plateau Central Senatorial District but also assisted Professor Joseph Mangu in
the collation of results for PKK during examination in-Chief led by Garba S.
Pwul (SAN) told the tribunal that collation of results for the house of
representative for PKK was going smoothly until the collation of results from
Kanam which was disrupted by PDP thugs. According to witness, the disruption
was so intense that even the police were over powered. He said that at a point, PDP thugs
threatened that if they announced the result, it is the dead bodies of INEC
Ad-hoc staff that would be taken out of the collation hall.
The
witness added that it was the disruption of collation of results by the PDP
thugs that led to the suspension of collation stressing that before the
suspension of the collation, he and the R.O for the House of Representatives
Professor Mangut were abused, man handled and traumaticed by the PDP thugs
The
witness, who is a Professor of zoology with the university of Jos, Nigeria said
that though he was the R.O for Plateau central Senatorial zone in the February
23, 2019 general elections, he and Professor Mangut the R.O for the house of
Representatives worked as a team knowing quite well that the results would all
come from the same local government Areas. The witness emphasized that in his
own case, he had five local governments namely; Mangu, Bokkos, Panshin, Kanke
and Kanam for the said elections) while for the House of Representatives, Professor
Mangut had three local government Areas namely: Pankshin, Kanke and Kanam.
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| Hon Golu (l) and Hon Gagdi at the tribunal |
Malau
said that before the result started coming they had informed the electoral
officer (E.O) for Plateau Central Federal constituencies who happened to be in
charge of INEC office in Panshin that they would carry out the assignment as
team work to ease the computation of the result they were expecting. According
to him, the E.O accepted the suggestion and said that it was even the tradition
of INEC to encourage that kind of arrangement.
According to witness, “we return to the
collation centre at the Council secretariat waiting for the results. The first
result that came was from pankshin LGA and the LGA collation officer for Pankshin
LGA transmitted the results to the R.O, Professor Mangut while I assisted him
entered the result. The result was entered loudly by calling out the figures to
the hearing of party agents, media, security personnel and observers. For
purpose of clarity in other to avoid interjection when result was being
entered, there was a back-up video transmitter that enabled everybody saw how
the results were transmitted and entered into the record sheet. That is how we
entered the result from Pankshin without any problem”
The witness said that the result from
Kanke followed the same pattern and it was accepted by all and everybody was
happy with the process. Witness said that at the end of collation of results
from Pankshin and Kanke LGAs, the PDP was leading followed by the APC and SDP.
He however said that when the result of Kanam finally arrived at the collation
centre, it was very difficult for the collation officer for Kanam to pass
through the gate to the hall until after about 25 minutes when the he finally
made his way to the hall with so many agents of all the political parties
coming after him.
“The collation officer, Dr Olulokpe Oke was
tensed and we allowed him sometime to acclimatize to the hall, said witness”.
He
said that while waiting for Dr. Oke to acclimatize, Hon Timothy Golu (the PDP
candidate for House of Representatives, PKK in that election) and David
Parradang (the PDP senatorial candidate for Plateau Central District in that
election) stormed the hall. “
immediately they entered the hall, there were followed by their political
supporters and hall was filled to its brim and it became practically impossible
for us to carry out our assignment. We asked them to kindly excuse us which
they did but it took more tome before their supporters did.”
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| Cross section of counsel at the tribunal |
Witness
said that before the transmission of result from Kanam commenced Prof. Mangut
asked the collation officer to explain to the people in the hall why it took
him more time than necessary to come with the result and the officer said he
had to solve some problems in some polling units otherwise, he would arrived
the collation centre earlier than he did.
“when
the result was fully transmitted and collated, we gave agents of political
parties the opportunity to either observe or raise objection on the result
collated. The leader of APC agents said he accepted the result while that of
the PDP raised objection. Firstly, he asked us to check the result that was
transmitted and collated whether some of the results that were cancelled in
some polling units are still reflected. We quickly called the collation officer
for Kanam and he explained the results for 9 polling units in Kanam that was
cancelled was not included. The PDP said he was satisfied with the explanation
but that there were some polling units they still want us to cancel right in
the hall. So, I asked him if he were in Kanam when the 9 polling units were
cancelled and he said yes. I asked him why didn’t you equally asked for the
cancellation of the polling units you want us to cancel here. He said that it
was in the hall that one of his agents told him that it was supposed to be more
than 9 polling units”
Witness
said that while they were still trying to resolve the issue with the PDP agent,
there was sudden influx of uncontrollable of party supporters from both the APC
and PDP. He said that while the APC supporters wanted the collation process
concluded and the result announced, the PDP supporters vehemently objected to
that saying that the election should be declared inconclusive.
“The
PDP supporters issued dead threat that if we announce the result, it is our
dead bodies that would be carried out of the collation hall?, he said. He said that the tension kept rising to the
point that a PDP agent by name Samuel Goar approached the official and told
them that they were not leaving the hall. “I told him I would leave and would
definitely come back when the environment is secured. At this juncture, I
attempt to leave because I was confident having the Area Commander by my side.
As I turned to leave, I received a slap at my back and the collar of my shirt
was held to my neck and pulled and I was forced to take my seat.”
Witness
said it was at that moment that he realized they were in danger which prompts
him to quickly put a call through to the Plateau State Resident Electoral Commissioner
(REC) and informed him of the situation. “Thereafter the security was beefed up
and with the help of the security personnel; we were able to get out of the
hall at about 2: 15am Tuesday 26 February 2019 to Jos”
Prof
Malau said after meeting with the REC, security was re-enforced as they were
total that a new area command ant was in chief of Pankshin and adequate
security was provided and they returned to Pankshin to conclude the process. He
address parties agents, media, security and observers that they have return to
conclude process by announcing the result, declaring the result and entered the
result in form EC8e1. He said that at that point, Samuel Go’ar the leader of
the party agent objected to that saying that if they insist on declaring the
result, they would leave. Witness added, “ but we adviced them not to leave
because it is for their own interest to stay. And so we continued from where we
stopped in the announcement of the result. At a point, we noticed that they
started walking out one after the other. As they staged the walk out, they told
us to our faces that he would see. Though the PDP agent staged a walk out, that
did not stop the process as the results were announced, declared and security
personnel signed and collected duplicate copies”
Witness said that at the end of the
process, the APC won and the winner that was announced was Adamu Yusuf Gagdi. The case was adjourned to 1st and 2nd July for continuation of hearing.
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