The presidential election tribunal kicked off yesterday with all involved parties present at the tribunal to kick off the legal exercise to determine who legally should be declared the winner of the 2019 presidential elections. This is as information made available to 247ureports.com indicates the presidency may not be as settled and collected.
According to one of the aides to the President who spoke on the phone, the presidency remains quite unsettled over the presidential tribunal to the extent that it believes Abubakar Atiku may have all the evidence to theoretically convince the tribunal panel of judges that President Buhari did not legally win the presidential elections of 2019. There may be sufficient evidence of rigging to concern the tribunal panel of judges.
The source notes the presidency is aware Atiku has yet to lose a legal battle in his political career. “While he was Vice President to Obasanjo, President Obasanjo brought thirteen [13] separate legal cases against Atiku. He won all of them”, said the source who went on to indicate that “Atiku is highly meticulous”. The source indicated that Atiku would never go into a legal battle without his evidence being waterproof and fireproof. “He is an institution” that cannot be easily pushed over.
Moreover Atiku may have anticipated the outcome of the 2019 presidential election, and may have prepared ahead of time avenues of gathering evidence for the tribunal. Atiku’s reference of the computer sever of the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] implies to the presidency that Atiku had prepped himself in readiness for the declaration of a tampered result by the INEC. Atiku’s reached and wide influence in the Nigeria political spectrum may have afforded him the opportunity of having moles within the INEC that availed him the ‘real’ INEC results in a manner that could be presented in court as hard evidence.
The presidency has in turn began to exhibit concern over the reality that Atiku may indeed have access to the data [results] stored at the INEC Sever. To this extend, the Presidency, using its security agencies began indiscriminate invitations and arrests of chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP]. Chieftains in the like of Raymond Dokpesi were stopped at the airport – not by immigration agents – but by agents of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency [NIA]. Their line of questioning was not on his immigration status. Rather, he was questioned on the contacts he made abroad and why he was travelling to the country he was returning from. Months after his arrest, building complexes at one of his business premises was demolished by the federal government.
The source revealed the INEC sever results which Atiku claims to have possession of – remains a serious concern to the presidency. The presidency is aware the INEC stores all its election results in a secure sever for storage. “How Atiku penetrated it” surprised them but they are not taking it lightly.
In consolation, the aide added that as at the time of the election, President Buhari was considerably popular in the core northern states – and thus may have legitimately scored higher votes that Atiku. But beyond that, “we did not do well”.
