The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday, called his witness to testify before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja.

Atiku and his party are challenging the declaration of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the presidential contest held on February 25.

At the resumed proceedings of the court, Atiku’s first witness, Capt. Joe Agada, retd, told the court that he served as the State Collation Agent of the PDP in Kogi State, during the general election.

The witness told the court that he was forced to sign the result of the presidential election by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

According to him, the INEC officials, vowed not to give him a copy of the result to take back to his party, unless he signed the document.
Led in evidence by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, the witness, maintained that the result of the presidential election in Kogi State was rigged.

He told the court that in over 20 polling units he visited, he observed how the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines, were manipulated.

He said: “My lords, apart from where I voted, which was at Ogene- Oforachi village in Ogugu Ward in Kogi State, I also served as my party’s State Collation Agent.

“I had a tag and a vehicle with a sticker that identified me as being on election duty. The exemption tag which was issued to me by INEC, allowed me to move around on the election day.

“I had the opportunity of visiting some highlighted polling units in my LGA, even though I did not visit all the polling units.”