TRIBUNAL: Dino Melaye Enters Witness Box For Atiku, Replies INEC, Tinubu’s Lawyers On Electoral Act

The Peoples Democratic Party on Friday fielded Senator Dino Melaye as one of its star witnesses before the Presidential Election Petitions Court sitting in Abuja.

Melaye testified against the Independent National Electoral Commission, President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The PDP and Atiku Abubakar’s lead counsel, Chris Uche SAN announced his portfolio as National Collation Agent for the party, businessman and politician.

Adopting his statement on oath, Melaye said the final results declared by INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood, was wrongly computed and announced at the National Collation Centre, Abuja, adding that he refused to endorse the results.

Under cross-examination by INEC’s lawyer, A.B, Mahmoud SAN, he said most of the PDP agents did not sign the polling unit Form EC8As across the country.

Mahmoud asked him to tell the court all he knows about electoral procedure of the 2023 presidential election.

Melaye said he knows the electoral procedure based on the fact that he was one of the lawmakers who put together the Electoral Act at the National Assembly.

He noted that the sequence of 2023 election involves sorting, collating and announcement of results after which it is uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IREV, before the presiding officer can proceed to the Ward collation centre.

“You stormed out of the National Collation Centre Abuja before the end of the collation process,” Mahmoud asked him.

“In protest of the fraudulent activities at the National Collation Centre, I left,” Melaye responded.

Tinubu and Shettima’s lawyer, Akin Olujimi SAN, asked the senator if the failure to transmit results to IREV can change the results already recorded on Form EC8A, to which, he said, “It will not, in an ideal situation.”

Melaye admitted that he did not state what he found to be the actual scores of Atiku in his statement on oath, saying he briefed the party’s statisticians.

“Which law designates IREV as a collation centre?,” Olujimi asked him.

The senator replied saying IREV is not a collation centre but it is part of the process for the conduct of the 2023 election.

He was asked by the legal team of APC if he mentioned the areas in Kano, Borno and Lagos states where he claimed in his statement that there was alleged malpractice and violence.

The senator, however, said he did not mention the places categorically.

The senator was eventually discharged from the witness box by the five-man panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani.

After that, the PDP lawyer, Uche, disclosed that he received some electoral documents from the INEC Chairman following a subpoena against him.

Some of them were Form EC8As in respect of Nasarawa state(13 LGAs).