INEC Workers Shock Tribunal: Presidential Election Results Denied Upload on Feb 25

INEC Workers Stun Tribunal: Presidential Election Results Blocked from Upload on Feb 25

Three ad hoc workers from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who served as Presiding Officers during the general elections on February 25, have made a startling revelation before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC). They testified that the presidential election results were the only ones that failed to upload to IREV, an INEC platform.

These three presiding officers were summoned by Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to present their testimony.

Led by Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, the petitioner's counsel, the witnesses informed the court that they successfully transmitted the results for the senatorial and House of Representatives elections using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine. However, they faced a roadblock when attempting to upload the results of the presidential election, leaving them dissatisfied with the entire election process.

Janet Turaki, Christopher Ardo, and Victoria Sani, the three witnesses, revealed that they respectively served as presiding officers in Yobe, Bauchi, and Katsina states.

All three witnesses unanimously agreed that the rest of the election proceedings went smoothly until the moment they tried to upload the presidential results, only to encounter issues with the BVAS machines.

Under cross-examination by INEC's counsel, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, Turaki testified that voter accreditation and voting proceeded without any problems at her polling unit. However, when she attempted to upload the presidential election result using the BVAS machine, the network malfunctioned.

Turaki explained that since she couldn't successfully upload the presidential election results, she handed everything over to her ward collation agent and completed the complaint form provided by INEC for such situations. She further mentioned that she and other party agents signed the result on form EC8A before taking it to the ward.

During his cross-examination by President Bola Tinubu's counsel, Mr Wole Olanipekin, SAN, Ardo expressed his dissatisfaction with his INEC assignment on election day. He cited his inability to transmit the presidential election result as required by law as the reason behind his feeling unfulfilled.

In her testimony, Sani, under cross-examination by counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Charles Edosanwan, SAN, asserted that she performed her duties as a presiding officer to the best of her ability.

The hearing in the petition was adjourned until Tuesday by the five-member panel, headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani.

Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and the PDP have approached the court to challenge the outcome of the presidential election held on February 25. One of the grounds for their petition is INEC's failure to transmit election results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) in real-time, as previously promised by Chairman Mr Yakubu Mahmood before the election.