ABUJA, Nigeria – Two subpoenaed witnesses of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the February 25 Presidential election admitted at the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, on Thursday, June 8, 2023, in Abuja that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, failed to transmit the results of the election following collation.
The witnesses, Friday Egwuma and Grace Timothy, both ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, reported that the BVAS machines allocated to them developed system errors immediately after the successful transmission of the Senate and House of Representatives election results.
During their subpoena evidence, the two electoral body workers explained that they had to resort to other means to transmit the results when it became apparent that the BVAS machines would not function as expected.
Egwuma served as a Presiding Officer in a polling unit in Abia State, while Grace Timothy worked for INEC in Plateau State.
Despite the BVAS machines’ failure to transmit the presidential election results, the two witnesses confirmed that voting went smoothly in their respective locations.
They were led in evidence by the lead counsel for the PDP candidate, Chief Chris Uche, SAN.
Under cross-examination by Mr Abubakar Mahmud, SAN, representing the electoral body, Egwuma clarified that he resorted to an offline system to replace the non-functional BVAS machines.
In her testimony, Grace Timothy told the Court that the most significant challenge she faced during the election was uploading the presidential election results into the I-rev portal.
The witnesses were also cross-examined by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, representing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, representing the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Further hearing in the petition has been adjourned to June 9 by the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani.
