Festus Keyamo, the Director, Strategic Communications of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, has called for the arrest and prosecution of the leadership of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the alleged hacking and tampering of Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) computer server.
Keyamo, who made the plea on Monday in a letter he addressed to Messrs. Mohammed Adamu and Yusuf Magaji Bichi, the Inspector General of Police and Director General, Department of State Services (DSSS), respectively, urged the duo to invite, interrogate and investigate those identified as perpetrators of what he described as “the hacking of and/or illegal tampering of the sever of INEC.”
“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,” he stated.
“The leadership of the PDP must be invited, interrogated and investigated and those identified as perpetrators must be arrested and prosecuted.”
Keyamo’s letter is set against the backdrop of the petition filed on Monday by the PDP and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, at the Electoral Tribunal (on Monday last week), where they are challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the poll.
In the 139-page petition, they had stated that from the data in INEC’s server the true, actual and correct results from state to state computation showed that Abubakar polled a total of 18,356,732 votes to defeat Buhari who they said scored 16,741,430 votes.
But reacting to the claim in the said letter, Keyamo said the figures being bandied by the PDP and its presidential candidate were fabrications, which they even managed to superimpose on INEC’s server, having gained access to it via hacking.
“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,” the APC spokesperson said.
Tracing how the development came about, Keyamo observed, “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.
“That was the first indication that the main opposition was up to something sinister regarding the electronic transmission of the results.
“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.
“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.
“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 1.6 million votes!
“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.
“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.”
You Are Jittery, PDP Tells Buhari, APC
Reacting, the PDP told President Buhari and the APC that they are jittery over the allegation.
PDP asked Buhari and the APC to stop their unnecessary fabrications, smear campaign and prepare to face its legal team at the presidential election tribunal.
The party, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that 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 sub judice.”
PDP stated 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 sub judice 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,” PDP said.
