By Martin Cole-
An election manipulation in the oil rich Rivers State in Nigeria, proven by Nigeria’s leading investigative news outlet, will be an important feature in the election court challenge of the 2023 elections.
Sources close to the case told this publication that the evidence will be tendered before the courts as part of the case by the parties contesting the election results.
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An investigation conducted by The PREMIUM TIMES- an ward winning national paper- found that the Labour Party (LP) representative, Peter Obi, in fact won the 25 February presidential election in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, South-south Nigeria, according to results uploaded on the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) calculated by the paper.
The paper concluded that the Labour Party candidate, Mr Obi’s haul of votes in the area implies he, and not Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the presidential election in Rivers State, contrary to the declaration made by INEC, is expected to be used in court, according to sources.
The appeal court this week began hearing evidence into allegations of fraud and electoral manipulation in the elections.
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Peter Obi believes he has enough evidence to prove that he won the overall general elections, as does his rival Abubakar Atiku of the APC party.
A source from The PREMIUM TIMES told The Eye Of Media.Com: ”it will be very interesting to see how the case goes. It is difficult to see how any of the parties will prove they won the elections. Although there were a number of anomalies in the elections, there is no evidence to show it affected the overall results. unless they have been hiding the evidence from the public and are waiting to use in court, then that will be very interesting to see.
”In every elections, there are always disgruntled parties that insist they should have won. We even see this in U.S elections. That’s why it is best to leave it to the courts to decide in light of the evidence presented”.
The paper embarked on an investigation of the election results following an outcry of voter manipulation by aggrieved Nigerians, given several irregularities in the elections.
The electoral result declared by INEC for the Obio/Akpor council area as declared by INEC had originally featured scores that presented Mr Tinubu as scoring 80, 239 votes, with Mr Obi garnering 3,829 votes.
However, the paper’s finding was markedly different from that. It found that the APC party accrued 17, 158 votes while the LP amassed 73,311 votes.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 368 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party got 161 votes, according to the paper’s investigation which has sparked serious questions as to why the total number of votes where not well tallied.
PREMIUM TIMES said its review of the results from various polling units of the 17 wards in Obio/Akpor LGA as uploaded on IReV revealed a sharp contrast with the result declared by INEC.
The paper said it could only review results from 1,116 polling units uploaded on the IReV as of 16 March, representing about 94.13 percent of the results from the council area.
It remains to be seen how the court will rule on a critical case of this nature where anomalies surface this clearly, making it worthy of deserving a good explanation by the Nigerian authourities as to why there are discrepancies between the total number of votes cast and those published on the portal.
The existence of those anomalies will not necessarily imply an automatic victory for the contending parties in this case, but it will formally question the integrity of the election process, while seeking to establish if that fraudulent result on its own, or with any others that come to light, substntailly affect the election results.
BLURRED
The paper said results from some polling units were ”either blurred or improperly snapped and therefore illegible”.
Results from about 95 polling units, representing about 5.87 per cent, were yet to be uploaded within the period under review, the paper said.
It added that there were no results in some polling units either because the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System malfunctioned or people did not come out to cast their votes, as observed at Ake Hostel UNIPORT Polling Unit in Choba Ward.
The publication also said that in some polling units in Obio/Akpor, it found that some results were altered in favour of the APC, with the original scores mutilated.
It went on to highlight an area known as Rumuorluoji Open Space II polling unit in Oro-Igwe Ward, where it insisted results showed that the APC originally scored 17 but the number, ‘2’ was added to the figure to read ‘217.’
Analysts at the publication noted that 227 was recorded for the Labour Party, but the number ‘2’ was erased and altered to read ‘027.’its, results earlier written for the LP were erased and the figures swapped with that of the APC.
The Labour Party and the PDP are both in court , challenging the elections results.
The inauguration for the president-elect, Bola Tinubu is slated for May 29- in three weeks time.
Tallied
The source from the paper told The Eye Of Media: PREMIUM TIMES, tallied the figures as published by INEC, despite the obvious evidence of adjustments and mutilations. In other words, the figures were tallied as they appeared on result sheets, even when there was evidence that such figures were tampered with.
” PREMIUM TIMES relied on the data published on INEC portal. They simply totalled the results from the last two local government that were announced and eventually tipped the result in favour of the APC.
”The report shed light on some of the concerns raised by the opposition. Although Inec has said the report is prejudicial as it’s in court. It may be one of the argument the opposition would tender in court when hearing starts.
”It retotalled the results of the last two LGAs — Obio/Akpor and Degema. Those two LGAs were the last to come in. What Premium Times found is that what was announced doesn’t tally with what was uploaded on the portal.
The Source added, ”it’s up for the court to affirm truly there was an error. It’s a case in court and it would be adjudicated as due”
Award
PREMIUN TIMES won the Pulzier award in 2017, following a series of global investigation
s into offshore entities, spanning over a year by the ICIJ, German newspaper, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and 100 other media organisations across the world, was awarded The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.
The Panama Papers investigation exposed offshore companies linked to more than 140 politicians in more than 50 countries – including 14 current or former world leaders.
It also uncovered offshore hideaways tied to mega-banks, corporate bribery scandals, drug kingpins, Syria’s air war on its own citizens and a network of people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin that shuffled as much as $2 billion around the world.
In the course of the investigations led by Editor-in-Chief, Musikilu Mojeed, PREMIUM TIMES published more than 30 stories, with damning details revealing the secret offshore asset of many prominent Nigerians.
The newspaper’s explosive investigations revealed the secret offshore asset of Senate President Bukola Saraki and his wife Toyin; as well as Mr. Saraki’s predecessor, David Mark.
The investigation also revealed how late governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, began looting his state and hiding the funds in offshore structures and how a former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, organised the stealing of the oil-rich state’s fund via offshore companies.
The paper is particularly credited because its owner is a Muslim, and does not appear to have put the partisanship of religion ahead of professional integrity.
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