The reluctance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to transmit presidential election results on election day upset three Presiding Officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday, according to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
The officers admitted that the results of the Senate and House of Representatives elections were uninterruptedly delivered and that technical difficulties developed when only the presidential vote results were relayed.
The three witnesses testified under subpoena at the current hearing of petitions challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, admitting that the election process went well until the BVAS machines refused to work.
Janet Nuhu Turaki, Christopher Bulus Ardo, and Victoria Sani, who served as INEC’s Presiding Officers in Yobe, Bauchi, and Katsina States, respectively, are the three witnesses.
They had been invited by the Court in response to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Abubakar Atiku’s joint plea to appear before it and give testimonies of their experiences with results transmission during the previous presidential election.
Janet Turaki, who first testified in the petition filed by former Vice President Abubakar Atiku against the election, stated that while voter accreditation was satisfactory, the process became difficult when the election results were uploaded.
She underlined that, while the results of the National Assembly election were smooth, the presidential election faltered and refused to function all day.
However, the witness informed the Court that the collated results in the forms EC8A were signed by the party agents as well as herself as INEC’s Presiding Officer.
Christopher Bulus Ardo testified in court that he felt unsatisfied with his duty with INEC on the election since he could not send the presidential election results as required by law.
In her own, Victoria Sani said she could not remember the candidate that won the presidential poll in Katsina State but insisted that all did not end well because of the inability to transmit the presidential aspect of the February 25 election.
Monday’s proceedings were conducted by Eyitayo Jegede SAN for Abubakar Atiku and PDP as petitioners, Abubakar Mahmoud SAN for INEC, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Charles Edosomwen SAN for the All Progressives Congress APC.
Meanwhile, the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani has fixed June 20 for the continuation of the hearing in the petition.
