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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has lined up 27 witnesses to defend the petition by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar against the election of its candidate, Bola Tinubu in the February 25 poll.
The party has already told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, to dismiss the petition filed by the PDP challenging the election of Tinubu in the presidential poll.
It said the proposed witnesses who are all members of the party are expected to testify that the election that produced Tinubu as President-elect was conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and other extant laws and that there was no such non-compliance substantial enough to affect the result of the election.
APC is further contending that the declaration of its presidential candidate as the winner of the election is proper and valid.
It argued that there is no provision in the operative law governing the conduct of elections in Nigeria that makes it mandatory for presiding officers to electronically transmit/transfer results from the polling units directly to the 1st Respondent’s collation system nor is there any such provision making it mandatory for the presiding officer to use the BVAS to upload a scanned copy of the Form EC8A to the 1st Respondent’s Result Viewing Portal (iRev) in real time. The Petitioners are hereby put to the strictest proof thereof.
It stated that BVAS was not for electronic transmission but a transfer of documents, which may only be utilized to forward documentation to the INEC’s IReV, but not in real time as it is not so and further that, the INEC Regulations did not specify real time electronic transmission as claimed in the Petition or any time lag whatsoever within which the transmission must be done.
The ruling party equally submitted that the important document in the presidential election is the polling units results-Form EC8A signed by the Presiding Officer and Party Agents, and it is the document used for collation of results.
Each Party is expected to have their own copy of this as soon as elections are concluded at the Polling Units.
‘The BVAS machines are essentially for the accreditation of voters. However, the glamorous portrayal of BVAS upload as a validator of results is not supported by the Electoral laws/INEC Regulations. The declared result at the polling units remain extant and petitioners accepted the results as they are not challenging the polling unit’s results.
“ The election process as established by INEC’s Regulation is that on completion of all the Polling Unit voting and results procedures, the Presiding Officer shall transfer the result of the Polling Unit, direct to the collation system as prescribed by the Commission, use the BVAS to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A (Form) to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), as prescribed by the Commission and take the BVAS and the original copy of each of the Forms in tamper evident envelope to the Registration Area/Ward Collation Officer, in the company of Security Agents. The Polling Agents may accompany the Presiding Officer to the RA/Ward Collation Centre. There is no mention of real time transfer of documents in the regulations.”
That further to the above, the election validly took place in the polling units where results were declared after sorting of ballots, counting of votes, recording of same in the prescribed forms which were signed by the presiding officers and the party agents, were present, including that of the Petitioners and copies issued as prescribed by the Electoral Act, 2022.
In its notice of preliminary objection filed by its lead counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, marked CA PEPC/A/05/2023, APC
urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit.
