You know Segun Showunmi, right? Spokesman of former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, who mesmerized Nigerians from one television station to another on the viability of his man in the run-up to the elections.  

He shocked Nigerians on Monday, when after swiftly identifying the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, INEC
Resident Electoral Commissioner for Cross River State, Mike Igini, and an official of a television station, who anchored the interviews from the DVDs he tendered before the presidential elections petitions tribunal, suddenly had difficulty identifying the same people in the DVD brought by President Muhammadu Buhari’s lawyer, Alex Izinyon, SAN.

The petitioners’ witness, Segun Showunmi, had tendered 48 compact discs (CDs) two of which showed where Yakubu and an INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, spoke about plans to deploy technology in the transmission of the results of the last elections.

The DVD tendered by Izinyon was played at the resumption of the tribunal’s proceedings on Tuesday.

The tribunal had, on Monday adjourned till yesterday owing to the refusal by the lawyer to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, Chris Uche, to allow Izonyo play his DVD in the equipment the petitioners brought, and with which they played their videos.

After the video of the interview granted by Yakubu on February 6, 2019 was played with the equipment brought by Izinyon, Showunmi, who resumed his testimony, said he could not identify the INEC Chairman and his interviewer in the video.

After the single DVD was played, Izinyon tendered it along with a certificate of compliance, which were both admitted by the tribunal, despite the petitioners’ lawyer’s objection.

Tribunal Chairman Justice Mohammed Garba advised Uche to include the reason for his objection in his final written address, as agreed by parties at the pre-hearing session.

Atiku and the PDP are, by their petition, challenging the outcome of the last presidential election won by President Buhari of the APC.

The petitioners are claiming, in their petition, to have won the election, going by results they claimed to have got from a purported INEC server into which they argued the results were electronically transmitted.

At the conclusion of Showunmi’s testimony, the petitioners called nine other witnesses, who all made allegations malpractices in the last presidential election.

The witnesses, who served as PDP agents in Nasarawa State, made series of claims that the election was manipulated, even in areas where the PDP won. But they failed, under cross examination, to sustain their claim of manipulation against agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Rikita Ali, who said he served as PDP Ward Collation Agent in Lafia Local Government, Nasarawa State, claimed in his written statement that an INEC official was caught with $10,000.

Ali said he witnessed the incident, which happened at Lafia Collation Centre, where he was present.

The witnesses, who said he had no evidence of the police report of the incident,  said the INEC official is still alive, but that could not say if the official has been arrested or prosecuted.

Another witness, Mohammed Hayatu, who said he retired as a Customs official, claimed, in his written statement, that Atiku is a Nigerian by birth and was qualified to vote and be voted for.

Under cross examination, Hayatu, who claimed Atiku was older than him by 20 years, confessed that all he said about Atiku were what his (Hayatu’s) late father told him about Atiku and his family.

Hayatu said he also learnt that part of Adamawa Province was part of Northern Cameroon, until the plebiscite of 1961, which brought it back to Nigeria.

The witness said Jadda, where Atiku was born was never part of Cameroon.

Earlier, another petitioners’ witness, Magdiel  Samaki, who said he was a Nigerian Ambassador to Romania, said he could not recall history relating to the plebiscite conducted in Northern Cameroon in 1961.

Under cross-examination, Samaki was asked to read part of his written statement, where he said he first met Atiku’s mother in 1965 and recalled Atiku’s early years.

When reminded that he claimed that his was born in 1946 and could not have witnessed Atiku’s early years, the witness said he read about it and was also told.

The witness said: “To the best of my knowledge and what I know, Jadda was in Northern Nigeria, in Adamawa Province, even before 1946.

On whether he is aware that prior to 1919, Cameroon was administered by Germany, the witness said he was not born then.

Samaki said he did not know when the First World War ended.

The petitioners are expected to call more witnesses at the resumption of the tribunal’s sitting today.