Courts not guided by social media video – Keyamo

Festus Keyamo

Spokesman of Buhari 2019 Campaign Organisation, Festus Keyamo, has said that courts only follow the provisions of Electoral Act and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guidelines for election matters and not random videos on social media.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate in February 23 election, Atiku Abubakar, had listed 13 ad hoc staff of INEC who all testified before the tribunal that they, indeed, uploaded results from their polling units to the INEC server as instructed during their training.

The claimants also alleged that they possess video evidence of INEC officials saying they were told to transmit results to the commission’s internet server.

Mr Keyamo, in a tweet on Thursday, said the purported videos were only done for entertainment and could not be admissible in court.

He said: “Without referring to any particular pending Election Petition, there’s a need to generally guide Nigerians not to gullibly fall for the fantasy created by any video circulating where INEC official(s) spoke of INEC’s plan to electronically transmit results before the elections

“The video(s) of some INEC official(s) expressing intention to electronically transmit results are only circulated for entertainment. That procedure is neither contained in the Electoral Act nor in INEC’s Guidelines. Courts are only guided by these documents and not such videos.”