Emmanuel Thomas I Tuesday, June 20, 2023
ABUJA, Nigeria – The Presidential Election Tribunal, PET sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja was on Monday informed that the server operated by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC did not suffer any glitch that would prevent it from transmitting results of the Presidential election from the wards to the website on February 25, 2023 when the election was held.
Clarita Ogar, a Cloud Engineer with Amazon Incorporated USA, the software company that provided cloud services that powered INEC server during the presidential election was testifying following a subpoena by Peter Obi and Labour Party.
Ogar, who works for Amazon Incorporated, United States of America told the court that INEC website, https://www.inecnigeria.org did not experience any glitch that will prevent it from transmitting election results from the wards to the server on February 25, 2023 when the election held.
Ogar’s report, a six page document admitted as evidence in the court contained details of the health status of the INEC website on the day that the presidential and house of assembly elections were held. All the respondents, INEC, APC, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his vice, Ahmed Shettima all objected to admission of the report.
Representing the first respondents are AB Mahmoud SAN Ma… SAN Stephen SAN TM. Inuwa SAN Olawale Ibrahim SAN Nasara Auta Esq. Wendy Kuku Esq. Musa Ata Esq.
Legal team for the 2nd and 3rd respondents are Wole Olanipekun SAN Akin Olujimi SAN Yusuf Ali SAN Ukala SAN Taiwo SAN Abiodun SAN Olatunji Busari SAN A. Mustapha SAN Babatunde SAN S. Adebayo SAN A. Marvel Esq. Ibrahim Audu Esq. Akintola Makinde Esq.
While the legal team for the 4th respondents are Lateef Fagbemi SAN Abiodun Owonikoko SAN Kunle Adegoke SAN YAH Mba SAN Mumini Hanafi SAN Tajudeen Oladoja SAN Saed Sanusi SAN Japhet Obawale Esq. Omosanya Popoola Esq. Olarenwaju Akinsola Esq.
Ogar could however not be cross-examined because all the respondents said there were just served copies of the report, which they said was too technical and would require time to study to be able to cross examine the witness.
The petitioner, Peter Obi and the Labour Party also called attention of the tribunal to deliberate efforts by INEC to frustrate them in obtaining relevant documents from the commission in Lagos and Gombe.
Counsel to the petition, J.S Okutepa, SAN informed the court that the petitioner has only received IREV reports from a few Local governments in Lagos State and Gombe, alleging that INEC is delaying proceedings when it is aware that the proceeding is time bound.
In the other case between the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Tinubu and INEC, the petitioner called three witnesses, Jenin Nurudeem Hakeem, Christopher Kudus Audu and Victoria Sanni who were INEC presiding officers in Yobe, Kogi and Katsina
They all expressed frustration with their inability to transmit the presidential election result using INEC BVAS. They told the court that they were able to use the BVAS to transmit result of the house of assembly election but that they could not use the same equipment to transmit results of the Presidential election, adding that the development was very frustrating.
