Witnesses have told the Plateau Governorship Election Petition Tribunal of the schemes executed by electoral officials and APC agents to rob Senator Useni and the PDP of victory at the polls.

More than thirty witnesses across Jos North, Wase, Kanam, Jos North and Qua’an Pan Local Government Areas took turns to narrate how the elections were rigged in their various Polling Units, electoral wards, and local government Areas in favour of Simon Bako Lalong and APC.

These included arbitrary change of results, wrong addition of figures, forging of signatures of PDP agents and threatening PDP agents with death if they refused to sign fake results.

The PDP legal team aasembled twenty-one witnesses within two days – July 1st and 2nd who all said they saw the election processs from start to finish in their various polling units.

Andrawus Semshak of Chigwang Polling Unit and Simdi Dafel of Dyis polling unit all in Pankshin LGA in their testimonies in chief, pointed to various forms of irregularities ranging from overvoting, alterations of figures to voting without proper accreditation of voters.

Infact, Andrawus said he was threatened with death and forced to sign a defective result sheet.

The first and only woman so far to testify was Nendirmwa Sunday, from Vel also in Pankshin Local Government Area, who also served as PDP agent during the governorship election.

She asserted that the entries by INEC were contrary to what was witnessed on the day of the election.

Ms. Sunday added that, “Despite my complaint that the card reader which had accredited less than 200 voters had developed a fault, and we should not waste our efforts on manual registration, INEC officers carried on with the rest of the voting by simply ticking names without the proper accreditation and allowing people to vote. I did lodge a verbal complaint to INEC officials but they did not give me any attention, so I kept it reserved for this day.”

Other witnesses who also testified before the Tribunal were Boniface Dafub from Yadat in Chip District and Dagong Peter of Kapil in Chip all in Pankshin LGA.

They alleged overvoting at their Polling Units, and the absence of security officers at the venue of the elections. Peter said he saw many ballot papers being illegally brought to his polling unit.

When witnesses from Qua’an Pan Local Government Area mounted the witness box, they reeled out a litany of electoral irregularities they had individually observed on Election day.

Yahaya Francis of Ungwan Dorowa polling unit of Kurgwi alleged overvoting, a faulty card reader and and said he tried to get the votes recounted but was ignored.

Julius Augustine of Babban Padama, also in Kwande, posited that “the alterations on INEC foem EC8A result duplicate sheet were made after he had signed the initial results.”

Genesis Chavoel of Kayarda in Namu and Danladi Sabo Danglat of Ungwan Tofa in Kwande, all in Qua’an Pan LGA, alleged over-voting and manipulation of results to favour the APC.

However, a witness, Dasaam Mark, a trader who served as the PDP agent in Nkum Polling Unit, fought off the combined force of the three Counsel representing INEC, Simon Bako Lalong and APC who made very determined attempts to get him agree to results which had been tampered with in his unit.

He told the tribunal,
“I complained to INEC officials about the fake results being inserted on the result sheets but they refused to listen. How can they now expect me to read out altered figures which I can hardly see with my naked eyes? I cannot identify what they have inserted on the result sheets. There is a problem there.”
He maintained this stout posture until the counsel’s timing for cross examination expired and the tribunal rose for the day.

Meanwhile, more witnesses of the petitioners are expected to testify before the tribunal daily except on Sundays when the tribunal does not sit.

Yiljap Abraham

Media Consultant
to Senator Jeremiah T. Useni

July 2, 2019.

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How JT Useni was robbed of governorship of Plateau State – witnesses