‘Only real votes matter’—Garba Shehu reacts to tribunal ruling on INEC server

Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesman, says President Muhammadu Buhari was declared the winner of the February 23 presidential election because only real votes matter.

Shehu was reacting to the election tribunal’s rejection of the request of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, to access the server reportedly used by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2019 elections.

The election tribunal, on Monday, dismissed the request by the party, ruling that granting the application would imply that the court had “indeed recognised and found out that there is a central server into which results of the held on February 23, 2019, were electronically transmitted by the 1st respondent (INEC).”

In a statement on Monday, Shehu said the tribunals ruling showed that “the long-standing principle of law has once again been re-enacted”.

He said that the results arrived at by YIAGA Africa and the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute (IRI/NDI) who observed the elections tally with those released by INEC.

“President Muhammadu Buhari won with a majority of four million votes and because only real votes matter, INEC announced him as the winner of the 2019 presidential election,” the statement read.

“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.”

Abubakar had claimed that he won the polls according to results purportedly available on INEC server.

The electoral body had, however, denied the existence of a server where results of the presidential election were uploaded.