…Obi’s Software Engineer Confirmed INEC AWS Used for Election Most Secured

The Presidential Election Petitions Court on Thursday heard two Presiding Officers in the February 25 Presidential Election subpoenaed to give evidence in support of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP)and his party’s case against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his party. The first witness, Mr. Friday Egwumah, an ex- National Youth Service Corps member, listed as the 12th witness (PW), informed the court that the election went well at his Polling Unit, 017,Ward 03,Abia North, Abia state but after uploading the National Assembly results, the BVAS machine failed to upload the Presidential Election result.

Asked by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC )Lead counsel, Mr. A.B. Mahmoud, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) whether he was trained on “offline transmission of results” by the INEC, the witness answered in the affirmative.
Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN Lead Counsel to President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima asked the witness what he did after the close of voting, Mr. Egwumah said :” I sorted the ballots, party by party and I took the result of the Presidential Election to the Collation Centre”. Asked by the learned silk who won in his polling unit, Mr Egwumah said :” Labour Party won in my Polling Unit .

The second witness (PW13),Miss Grace Timothy said the voting process went on well but the only challenge was uploading the results. She said: “I was happy I concluded the process and took the result to the Collation Centre.

Earlier, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN had objected to Mr. Egwumah adopting his statement on oath citing Paragraph 4(5)(a)(b) (c) and several decided authorities to support his opposition. Mr. A. B. Mahmood SAN, counsel to INEC aligned his position with Chief Olanipekun and cited several authorities to support his opposition.

Lead Counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC),Prince Lateef Fagbemi said he was in agreement with the objection raised by Chief Olanipekun. However, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN asked the Court to dismiss the objections on the grounds that they were utterly misplaced and misconceived. Chief Uche argued that the objections by President Tinubu, the APC and the INEC were deliberate ploy designed to delay proceedings.

The learned silk insisted that the statements of the subpoenaed witnesses could not have been front loaded along with the petition because they have not been summoned at the time of filing the petition. He asked the Court to discountenance the objections of the three respondents and hold that they are not regular additional witnesses envisaged in the law cited by Olanipekun.

Although, the Court stood down for ruling, the Presiding Justice of the Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani on resumption, announced that ruling in the objections had been reserved. Justice Tsammani however ordered that the evidence of the three subpoenaed witnesses be taken and the respondents to cross examine them. The case was adjourned to Friday.

Also, Mr Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) called a witness who claimed to be a software engineer and architect to prove his case against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The witness, Mr Anthony Chinwo the PW2 under cross examination by INEC Lead Counsel, Mr. Mahmoud said he did not play any role on the day of election. He also confirmed to the court that he is not familiar with the BVAS and the application of the BVAS. He told the court that as a software engineer, he has not developed any software or application that has been used in any general election.

When informed that the Amazon Web Services(AWS) is the most secured provider of cloud computer services worldwide that is used by governments, corporate bodies as well as individuals, Mr Chinwo answered in the affirmative.

Mr Mahmoud SAN further asked the witness whether it is a fair conclusion that INECs deployment of its web on AWS indicated that INEC was more concerned with the security of its services, Mr. Chinwo said:”it is not a fair conclusion”.

Cross examined by Mr. Yusuf Alli SAN, the witness said it was only INEC that could prescribe method of transmitting results on election day. He said he was not in a position to know the number of software component INEC used in the conduct of the election. Mr. Chinwo told the court that he did not vote on February 25,2023.

Under cross examination by the APC Lead Counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, the witness informed the court that he did not include his profile on his written statement on oath.

Also, the Petitioners tendered Form EC40G (Summary of registered voters in Polling Units where elections were cancelled on not held) in four Local Government Areas of Bayelsa state. It could, however, not be admitted as there were challenges with some of the numbering of the documents.

The presiding judge, Justice Tsammani directed Mr. Obi’s Counsel to: “go back and organize yourself and come back tomorrow.

The case was consequently adjourned till Friday for continuation.