The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has accused Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, of manufacturing results of the last presidential election to prove his case at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

A PREMIUM TIMES report on Saturday said that the electoral umpire in its response filed on Thursday at the tribunal in Abuja “distanced itself from an electronic sheet that purportedly contained the genuine results of the presidential election.”

Atiku’s legal team submitted the sheet at the tribunal last month, contending it was obtained from an internal compilation of results on INEC’s Internet server, showing that he won by more than six million votes, but the election was allegedly rigged in favour of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

INEC, according to excerpts of the filings quoted by PREMIUM TIMES, said it “does not share information with such an unclassified entity and any information purportedly derived therefrom which does not accord with the result as declared by INEC is not authentic but rather was invented for the purpose.”

“In the 291-page response, INEC said it did not transmit results via electronic channels, but used manual collation as stipulated by law. It, however, did not say whether it collated results from across the country and compiled them on an Internet-enabled computer,” the paper further reported.

“INEC specifically denies the existence of electronic transmission of results and it is unknown to the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended),” the report further said.