The presidency says Tribunal’s rejection of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP’s request to inspect the server of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) marks the triumph of Justice.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu in a statement on Monday said the attempt by the main opposition party is a desperate one which overreaches judicial process.
“In a landmark ruling by the Presidential Election Tribunal, a desperate attempt by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to overreach judicial process was overwhelmingly rejected by a unanimous decision and the long standing principle of law has once again been re-enacted.
“An attempt to cause the determination of an issue that constitutes the fulcrum of contention between the parties, at an interlocutory stage, has again been rejected by the tribunal,” he said.
He added that what this means is that Justice and fair hearing through due contest by the parties of a major issue for determination remains sacrosanct and remains considerable by the tribunal upon according parties just and fair hearing and not the other way round.
“The existence of a purported server is being contested and if a purported inspection had been allowed at this stage, it would have amounted to the determination that it indeed existed even when its existence is being contested.
“The electoral law prescribes manual transmission of results only and this was what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did, in obedience to the law as witnessed by real electoral observers,” he added
Shehu explained further that YIAGA Africa deployed 3906 real individuals to run a parallel tabulation which returned the same results the INEC announced.
“Last week, the final reports of the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute (IRI/NDI) electoral observer mission made clear that the results of the election reflected the votes cast.”
He then stressed that President Buhari won the 2019 presidential election with a majority of four million votes and because only real votes matter, INEC announced him as the winner of the 2019 presidential election