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2023 Presidential election: How BVAS machines failed us, INEC officials tell court
The development came on a day the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, which is equally challenging the return of Tinubu as winner of the presidential election, declined to withdraw its petition that is pending before the court.
Three presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday, testified as witnesses in the case former Vice President and candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, filed to nullify President Bola Tinubu’s election.
The trio, who took turns to mount the box owing to witness summons served on them by the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, narrated how the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines failed them on February 25, which was the day the presidential election was held.
According to the witnesses, whereas they were able to transmit results of the National Assembly election that held on the same day, using the BVAS machines, however, their repeated efforts to electronically transmit results of the presidential poll to INEC’s IReV portal failed.
The three witnesses— Janet Nuhu Turaki, Christopher Bulus Ardo and Victoria Sani— told the court that they conducted the presidential election as Presiding Officers at Yobe, Bauchi and Katsina states, respectively.
Led in evidence-in-chief by a member of Atiku’s legal team, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, the witnesses told the court that “technical glitches” they experienced with the BVAS machines frustrated their jobs on the election day.
They told the court that results of the Senate and the House of Representatives elections were transmitted seamlessly, insisting that the problem of technical hitch arose at the point of transmitting only the presidential poll results.
The first witness, Turaki, told the court that the accreditation of voters with the BVAS machine went successfully, stressing that the electoral process became frustrating for her at the point she wanted to upload the election results.
However, she told the court that she carefully collated the result of the presidential election in the polling unit she served and recorded same in INEC’s form EC8A, after which she signed the document alongside agents of all the political parties.
In his evidence, Ardo told the court that he felt unfulfilled in his assignment with INEC on the election because he could not transmit the presidential election results as required by law.
Sani, in her testimony, said she could not remember the candidate that won the presidential poll in Katsina State, though she also lamented her inability to transmit the election results with the BVAS device.
The witnesses said they had at the end of the presidential poll submitted a report to INEC, wherein they enumerated the challenges they faced with the BVAS machines.
Meanwhile, all the respondents in the matter challenged the admissibility of statements the witnesses deposed on oath before the court as part of the proof of evidence in the matter.
While Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, appeared for INEC, President Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, APC, were represented by Wole Olanipekun, SAN, and Mr. Charles Edosomwan, SAN, respectively.
The Justice Tsammani-led five-member panel of the court adjourned further hearing in the matter till Tuesday.
APM declines to withdraw case against Tinubu
The development came on a day the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, which is equally challenging the return of Tinubu as winner of the presidential election, declined to withdraw its petition that is pending before the court.
The court had on May 30 suspended further proceedings in the matter after counsel to President Tinubu drew its attention to a judgement of the Supreme Court, which he said settled the issue the APM raised in its petition.
