Five ad hoc staff members of INEC have been admitted to testify as special witnesses in Atiku’s petition challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election. They have been summoned to appear before the PEPC.
Atiku, the runner-up in the February presidential election, had, in a joint petition with his party, alleged that the election was rigged in favor of President Bola Tinubu and the ruling APC.
The former VP alleged in his petition that the Electoral Commission used an external tool to change the outcome of the presidential election in favour of the APC and Bola Tinubu. He also accused INEC of transferring its IT expert before the election. Atiku has hired a consultant from IT to replace Chidi Nwafor and install the third-party mechanism. The consultant’s name is Mr Suleiman Farouk, and while testifying in court, he stated that the Device Management System (DMS) facilitated communication between the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the IRev portal. The DMS software, according to Farouk, was used by INEC’s security consultant IT. Farouk was hired by INEC to oversee the ICT department and remotely monitor and analyze data transmitted from BVAS devices to the electronic registration system and IRev platform and was appointed by Tinubu.
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The Petitioners argue that the original design of the BVAS machine was circumvented by the 1st Respondent, who used a third-party intermediary device, the Device Management System, to intercept the results of the presidential election and filter the data for the benefit of the 2nd and 3rd Respondents. The petitioners will present expert evidence on the first respondent’s ICT, including the BVAS machine supplied by Activate Nigeria Limited and manufactured by Emperor Technologies China. The petitioners have summoned five ad hoc staff members of INEC to appear as witnesses and present sensitive materials in evidence. “Three of the five witnesses were in the courtroom, he said.
When the first subpoenaed staff took the witness stand, INEC’s counsel objected, saying he had only received the witnesses’ statements shortly before the trial and needed more time for proper cross-examination. INEC’s counsel pointed out that the identity of the witnesses and their status as ad hoc employees needed to be verified during the election. Counsel for Tinubu and counsel for the APC agreed with this position. The defendants need time to verify the witness statements submitted by the plaintiffs.
The panel, presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani, adjourned the case to Thursday to give INEC’s lawyers time to conduct an investigation. The petitioners produced certified copies of results from 10 LGAs in Kogi State and PDP chairmen from Anambra State. Ndubuisi Nwobu, the 11th witness, testified that, as the PDP electoral officer, he observed during the election that results from about 30 polling units were not uploaded in real-time on INEC’s I-Rev portal. The witness was forced by INEC officials to sign the election results, and they threatened to withhold the copy if he did not sign. Uploading the results to the I-Rev portal was unsuccessful. “Witnesses said magic happened at the ward level and that without his quick intervention, angry voters would have attacked INEC officials.”
