Tribunal didn’t turn down my request – Atiku tells Nigerians

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the February 23   presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has denied that he and his party’s request to access the Independent National Electoral Commission’s server was turned down by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.



In a  statement by his media aide, Paul Ibe,  on Tuesday, the former vice-president said the tribunal only ruled that granting them access to the server was not necessary in the preliminary stage of the proceedings.



Atiku was responding to a statement by presidential spokesman  Garba Shehu hailing the tribunal’s ruling on his party’s request to access INEC’s server.









He said, “The celebration by the administration of General Buhari that their electoral heist has been covered is premature. Their giddiness has even blinded them to the eyewitness testimony in the multiple media interviews by  Independent National Electoral Commission workers that there was indeed a server and that they actually submitted results and accreditation through it.



“In their rush to claim a pyrrhic victory, the General Buhari administration missed out  on  the fact that the 2019 budget has multiple line items for procurement, maintenance and service of the server they claim does not exist.”



READ ALSO:  BREAKING: My WAEC certificate can't resolve Nigeria's problem - Buhari tells appeal court









He added, “The statement tried to spin the recent verdict on the election passed by the European Union election observers. For the avoidance of doubt, what the EU report said was that the 2019 elections had significant defects and fell short of the 2015 elections. It should be noted that one of the issues they raised was the attempt to muzzle not just the media, but more importantly the judiciary.



“In the light of this, we remind those who are gloating in their ignorance that ‘he who laughs last, laughs best. The last has not been heard of this matter and we eagerly anticipate the actual ruling of the tribunal when the case proper begins.”



Atiku has insisted that he won the election.

Place Your MidPost Ads Code (PC) Here