Five INEC’s ad-hoc staff members who participated in the conduct of the disputed presidential election have told the court that on the day of the presidential election, all efforts they made to upload polling unit results to INEC’s I-Rev portal, using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines, failed.
Five INEC’s ad-hoc staff members were subpoenaed to appear before the court, however, only two of them were able to testify on Thursday, with three others reserved for Friday.
The two that testified on Thursday, Egumah Friday and Grace Timothy, told the court that they served as Presiding Officers in Abia and Bauchi, respectively, during the general elections.The witnesses told the court that on the day of the presidential election, all efforts they made to upload polling unit results to INEC’s I-Rev portal, using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines, failed.
The witnesses said they were however surprised that though results of the presidential election failed to upload through the BVAS machines, they were able to upload results of the National Assembly elections that held on the same day.
Atiku, who came second in the presidential contest that held on February 25, had in the joint petition he filed with his party, alleged that the election was rigged in favour of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
In his 66-paged petition, Atiku accused the electoral Commission of installing a third-party device he said was used to intercept and switch results of the presidential election in favour of the APC and its candidate, Tinubu.
He further alleged that INEC had prior to the election, redeployed its in-house ICT expert, Mr. Chidi Nwafor, and replaced him with an IT Consultant that helped it to install the third-party mechanism.
According to Atiku, the said IT Consultant, Mr. Suleiman Farouk, ensured that the device intermediated between the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the IRev Portal, known as Device Management System (DMS).
He told the court that the DMS was the software that allowed INEC’s IT Security Consultant, Mr. Farouk, to remotely control, monitor and filter data that was transmitted from the BVAS devices to the electronic collation system and the IRev platform.
The subpoenaed INEC ad-hoc staff members who are ex-corps members, said they however snapped pictures of the results with the BVAS machines.
Though President Tinubu and the APC did not oppose the evidence of the second subpoenaed witness, Grace, they however accused the first witness, Friday, of being an impostor.
They told the court that the name of the Presiding Officer that was at the polling unit that Friday claimed that he served on the election day, was Faga Kehen.
The Justice Tsammani-led panel adjourned further hearing on the case till Friday.