From Godwin Tsa, Abuja.
Three Presiding Officers (POs), of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday admitted that only results of the Senate and the House of Representatives that were successfully transmitted unhindered from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System(BVAS) to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Testying in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the subpoenaed witnesses lamented that the failure of BVAS to transmit the presidential election results on election day frustrated their jobs.
The three witnesses Janet Nuhu Turaki, Christopher Bulus Ardo and Victoria Sani who served as INEC’S Presiding Officers at Yobe, Bauchi and Katsina States respectfully, told the PEPC that the election process went on smootly until the BVAS machines refused to work.
First to testify was Janet Turaki, who served as a presiding officer at a polling unit in Gombe State.
In her evidence-in-chief, Turaki who adopted her statement on oath stated that the accreditation of voters and actual voting went well but the process became frustrating at the point of uploading the results.
Under cross-examination by INEC’s lawyer, A.B. Mahmoud SAN, the witness said although she studied Forestry and Agriculture in school, she was familiar with the use of computer.
She emphasized that while transmissionof the National Assembly election results sailed smoothly, that was not the case with the presidential which failed and refused to work throughout the day.
The witness said she entered polling unit scores on the INEC Forms EC8As and party agents signed on it.
“The presidential result couldn’t upload but that of the Senate and House of Assembly uploaded,” the witness said.
When asked by Mahmoud whether INEC trained presiding officers to do offline transfer of Form EC8A, the witness replied “We were trained that when we find ourselves where there is no network, we do offline transmission, but it could not upload,”
But INEC lawyer maintained that she cannot tell if the offline transmission was eventually successful, to which she said, “I don’t know, actually.”
Lead counsel to President Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun SAN, told the witness that she was trained by INEC to hand over the hard copy of Form EC8A (polling unit result sheet) to her superior at the Ward level, even if she could not upload electronically using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS machine.
“We were issued a complaint form and I mentioned the failure to upload results on it,” she said, noting that the conduct of the election at her polling unit was 100 percent successful apart from the failure to upload presidential election results electronically.
While fielding questions from counsel to APC, Charles Edosanwam SAN, she maintained that at her polling unit, only the upload of presidential election results was unsuccessful.
It was the turn of Christopher Bulus, an INEC ad-hoc presiding officer in Bauchi state, who said he tried the offline transmission on BVAS, but it did not work.
He said he was not satisfied with the electoral process because uploading the Presidential election results at the polling unit was part of the procedure they were taught by INEC.
Counsel to Tinubu, Olanipekun asked the witness if he thinks his inability to upload scanned copy of presidential results could have affected what he recorded on the Form EC8A.
“I cannot actually say, because as a presider officer, I was asked to submit the result sheet at the Ward collation centre. I don’t know,” the witness told the court.
The witness repeated the same answer during cross-examination by the APC legal team.
After him came Victoria Sani, a presiding officer in Niger state.
She, like others, explained to the court that she accredited voters using the BVAS machine, entered the scores of all political parties on Form EC8A but could not use it to transmit presidential election result, after parties had signed on it.
On the offline method of transmission, she agreed with INEC’s lawyer, Abdullahi Aliyu SAN, that when scanned result are uploaded offline, it may transmit to IREV portal later particularly when there is network.
Under cross examination, by Olanipekun SAN, she said one party agent complained at the polling unit regarding failure to transmit presidential election results election.
“I suggest to you, that till now, no political party or candidate has complained to you that what you recorded on Form EC8A has been altered or tampered with?
“One of them, complained,” the witness replied.