Joe Agada, the People Democratic Party’s first witness on Thursday, claimed that BVAS devices were corrupted in the previous presidential election and that he was forced to certify the results as the state collation officer in Kogi State.
Agada, a former captain, claimed this during his cross-examination before the Presidential Election Petition Court, where the February 25 election result is being disputed.
The trained pharmacist, who was identified as a past witness in 2019 for the petitioners – the PDP and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar – by the counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission and the cross-examiner, Abdullahi Aliyu SAN – informed the court that he had the opportunity of visiting some polling units in some Local Government Areas.
When INEC’s counsel questioned him about alleged vote paper manipulation and if it occurred in his presence, he replied with a yes.
Furthermore, he said that he was present when the BVAS devices were altered.
Aliyu had asked, “You were present while the BVAS devices were also manipulated?”
He disclosed while affirming that he spent between 3 to 5 minutes in the affected areas.
Furthermore, Agada alleged that he was forced to sign the results at the state level by INEC’s officials.
He said he had to sign the forms because failure to do so, he would have been denied a copy to his party.
He said, ” I was forced to sign which I protested because without signing I was going to be denied a copy to my party.”
He, however, admitted that he did not mention the incident in his witness deposition.
