Election Tribunal: Forensic Expert Presents Evidence in Atiku’s Petition

A Digital Forensic Expert, Hitler Nwuala has told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja that the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) deliberately deleted all the results of the Presidential election from the BVAS for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under the guise of preparation for the March 18 governorship election.

At Thursday’s proceedings, the forensic expert who was the 26th witness of the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Presidential election, Atiku Abubakar claimed to have inspected 110 BVAS devices used during the Presidential polls in the FCT and insisted that all the machines he inspected had their data deliberately deleted.

During cross-examination by INEC’S counsel Abubakar Mahmoud SAN, Mr Nwuala maintained that it was unnecessary for the electoral body to have deleted the presidential election result data from BVAS machines used in the FCT because the FCT did not hold governorship elections.

The witness was led in his evidence-in-chief by counsel to PDP and Atiku Mr Chris Uche, SAN and the report was subsequently admitted as evidence and marked as exhibits despite objections by the respondents in the matter.

Thereafter, the petitioners tendered a certificate of compliance to indicate that the report has complied with the Evidence Act.

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Under cross-examination by counsel to INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, the witness said that he attached a standard device to the BVAS machine to carry out his investigation.

However, INEC challenged his allegation, insisting that because he did not inspect all the machines, his claim was wrong but the witness maintained his stance.

Mahmoud presented to the court, for demonstration, a BVAS machine which he asked the witness to access and show proof that the data was deleted.

The witness said it was professionally wrong for him to access the machine directly.

He said, “We don’t access the source of evidence directly. We extract the evidence and access it from another source.”

INEC insisted the BVAS must be inspected in court. But the chairman of the five-man panel, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani informed the counsel that the allotted time for conducting his cross-examination had elapsed.

Counsel for Tinubu, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, pointed out disparities in the forensic report concerning the number of machines inspected by the witness.

Tendering of evidence

Atiku and his party continued their battle against the declaration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the election with the tendering of more certified form EC8A exhibits in four more States of the Federation.

The sensitive documents were tendered in 20 Local Government Areas of Ogun, 17 Local Government Areas of Ondo, 27 Local Government Areas of Jigawa and 20 Local Government Areas of Rivers State.

Although the admissibility of the exhibits was opposed by counsels to INEC, Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) who are the three respondents in the petition, the Court went ahead and admitted them.

Further hearing into the petition has been adjourned to Friday, June 23.

Emmanuel Ukoh