INEC Officials: “How BVAS Failed To Transmit Results”

Two ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission acting as subpoenaed witnesses of the Peoples Democratic Party have admitted that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System failed to transmit the results of the election after the collation.

The witnesses, Mr Friday Egwuma and Ms Grace Timothy both Adhoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said that the BVAS machine allocated to them developed system error immediately results of the Senate and House of Representatives aspects of the poll were freely transmitted. This is a confirmation of the allegations that have trailed the presidential component of the February 25 election that the results were not transmitted in real-time via BVAS in line with the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC guidelines.

In their subpoena evidence, the two workers of the electoral body explained that they had to resort to other means of getting the results across when it became clear that the BVAS machines would not help them.

Egwuma was a Presiding Officer in a polling unit in Abia State while Grace Timothy served INEC in Plateau State.

Apart from the failure of the BVAS machines to transmit the presidential election results, the two witnesses admitted that voting went smoothly in their respective places of work.

Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN, led them in evidence.

Under cross-examination by Mr Abubakar Mahmud SAN, who stood for the electoral body, Egwuma explained he resorted to the offline system instead of the BVAS machines.

In her own testimony, Grace Timothy told the Court that the greatest challenge she experienced during the election was the uploading of the presidential election results into the I-Rev portal.

The witnesses were also cross-examined by Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, who stood for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN who represented the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Earlier, Tinubu and APC had vehemently kicked against the bid by Atiku to engage the ad-hoc staff to give evidence in his petition challenging the declaration of Tinubu as a winner of the 2023 presidential election.

Atiku in the bid to establish the alleged irregularities against the election had subpoenaed three ad-hoc workers of INEC to give first-hand accounts of their experiences as they related to the presidential election of February 25.

Although the Court stood down for ruling, the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, on resumption, announced that ruling in the objections had been reserved.

Justice Tsammani, however, ordered that the evidence of the three subpoenaed witnesses be taken and the respondents to cross-examine them.

Meanwhile, further hearing in the petition has been adjourned to June 9.