Buhari versus Atiku: 2019 Presidential ‘War’ Shifts to INEC Server

The political ‘war’ between the two principal actors in the 2019 presidential election – the All Progressives Congress APC presidential candidate/incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari and the former vice president/Peoples Democratic Party PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar – has taken another dimension.

The two candidates have shifted attention to the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), accusing each other of foul play.

Atiku has claimed in his petition to the 2019 Presidential Election Tribunal that he won the poll by about 1.6 million votes based on available statistics on INEC server.

But, reacting to Atiku’s claim, APC

Presidential Campaign Council Monday alleged that Atiku and his party are yet to tell Nigerians the whole truth about the hacking of the INEC server.

APC, thus, tasked the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Department of State Services to use their “good offices to investigate the hacking of and/or illegal tampering with the INEC server by the PDP.”

APC, in a statement by its Director, Strategic Communications, Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, said: “The leadership of the PDP must be invited, interrogated and investigated and those identified as perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted.”

PDP, however, vehemently rejected APC’s position and asked the ruling party to stop its unnecessary fabrications, smear campaign, but prepare to face its legal team at the presidential election tribunal.

According to the opposition party, “President Buhari is overweighed by the burden of illegitimacy, following overwhelming evidence before the tribunal that he stole the Presidential mandate, hence this lame attempt at blackmailing the tribunal by engaging in clear acts of subjudice.”

PDP said: “The facts and issues touching on the INEC server are already within the public domain and Nigerians are already at home with them.

“By resorting to shadow-boxing outside the tribunal, President Buhari and the APC have shown that they have no defence to present to the court against PDP’s submission that they stole our mandate.”

Read the full text of the statements by APC and PDP below

● APC Statement
1. The Inspector-General of Police,
Police Force Headquarters,
Louis Edet House,
Abuja.

2. The Director-General,
Department of State Services,
Aso Drive,
Abuja.

Dear sirs,

PETITION TO INVITE, INTERROGATE AND INVESTIGATE THE PDP LEADERSHIP OVER ITS ADMITTANCE OF ILLEGAL ACCESS TO INEC’S SERVER

BACKGROUND

1. It would be recalled that an Electoral (Amendment) Bill containing the provision for electronic transmission of results to INEC’s central computer system (otherwise called “server”) was sent to President Muhammadu Buhari by the National Assembly for assent late in the year 2018.

2. Despite the shortness of time before the Presidential/National Assembly Elections, and the lack of time to first simulate the process to ensure its effectiveness in a country like ours with problems of effective networks in many rural areas and constant failure of technological devices, together with its violation of the time frame of such laws as provided for in regional and continental Protocols in terms of the length of time required for the passage of such laws before any major election, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party was hell-bent that the President should sign the Bill into law. That was the first indication that the main opposition was up to something sinister regarding the electronic transmission of the results.

3. Upon the last-minute postponement of the February 16, 2019 Presidential/National Assembly Elections, the nation was shocked to see already prepared presidential elections results floating around in the cyber space just less than 24 hours after the postponed election was originally billed to hold! The fake results had details of the scores of the candidates of the major parties. Of course, the fake results gave victory to the candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, even when elections did not hold.

4. The only conclusion one can draw from the above is that the PDP had prepared those results which were to be smuggled into the INEC Server. However, the sudden postponement of the election scuttled that evil plan, but it was too late to restrain the release of the fake results.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

5. The proper elections were held on February 23, 2019 and President Muhammadu Buhari declared the winner. Despite the approval of the elections as credible by nearly all local and international observers (except some few known PDP acolytes masquerading as local observers), the PDP cried foul and made a shocking claim: it claimed that from purported results it obtained from INEC’s server, it has so-called proof that its candidate won the election by about 1.6million votes!

6. Shockingly and coincidentally, this margin was about the same margin by which it also purportedly “won” by the fake results released just hours after the postponement of the February 16, 2019 Presidential/National Assembly Elections.

7. As if this expensive joke was not enough, the PDP and its Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have gone ahead to file an Election Petition against the clear victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and have repeated the same outlandish claim of having access to INEC’s server which shows that they have some purported results at their disposal giving “victory” to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

8. Sirs, we wish you to note that INEC’s server is the back end of electronic records of INEC. This is not INEC’s website but its server! Although, the purported results have been conclusively shown by public engagements to be false and even ridiculous, especially as the total number of accredited voters is exactly equivalent to the purported votes of the APC and PDP candidates, this criminal claim of the PDP has revealed a few things:

(a) It is now clear that some criminally-minded PDP operatives have access to the INEC server to be able to smuggle in fake results into that server.

(b) The only means by which they could have access to the INEC server is by the criminal hacking of the server or through the criminal conspiracy of some INEC officials.

PRAYERS

The APC Presidential Campaign Council hereby prays that the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Department of State Services use your good offices to investigate the hacking of and/or illegal tampering with the INEC server by the PDP. The leadership of the PDP must be invited, interrogated and investigated and those identified as perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted.

Opposition is healthy in a democracy but it is not a license for criminality and illegality. A country governed by laws cannot be blackmailed or cowed into indolence by the perceived underdog status of the opposition so as to condone such a blatant criminal claim by the PDP of having illegal access to INEC’s server.

We trust you will act with alacrity.

Thank you.

Signed
FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIArb (UK)
Director, Strategic Communications,
APC Presidential Campaign Council,
(Official Spokesperson).

● PDP Statement
INEC Server Allegation: You Are Jittery PDP Tells Buhari, APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop their unnecessary fabrications, smear campaign and prepare to face its legal team at the Presidential election tribunal.

The party says President Buhari is overweighed by the burden of illegitimacy, following overwhelming evidence before the tribunal that he stole the Presidential mandate, hence this lame attempt at blackmailing the tribunal by engaging in clear acts of subjudice.

The PDP states that the facts and issues touching on the INEC server are already within the public domain and Nigerians are already at home with them.

By resorting to shadow-boxing outside the tribunal, President Buhari and the APC have shown that they have no defence to present to the court against PDP’s submission that they stole our mandate.

It is even more appalling that Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a member of Buhari’s legal team, who should know better, would engage in this act of subjudice designed to distort facts already known to Nigerians, that our Presidential Candidate and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, clearly won the February 23 Presidential election.

Since it has become clear that President Buhari has no defence to present to the court, we counsel him to save the nation further stress by surrendering our mandate, which was freely given by majority of Nigerians to Atiku Abubakar.

Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary.