A digital forensic expert, Mr. Hitler Nwala, testified before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, in Abuja on Thursday, revealing how he discovered that the Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, erased the results of the February 25 presidential election.
Mr. Nwala, who was the 25th witness called by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, claimed that the deleted results were stored in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines used during the elections.
Atiku and his party argued that the data from the BVAS machines would support their allegation of election rigging in favor of President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
During his testimony, Mr. Nwala stated that he conducted a forensic analysis on 110 BVAS machines used in the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He mentioned that INEC claimed to have wiped off the BVAS information to redeploy them for the subsequent Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections held on March 18.
However, during cross-examination, INEC’s counsel disputed the witness’s report, emphasizing that the sample size of 110 BVAS devices was not sufficient to establish any irregularities on the part of the Commission. The counsel pointed out that a total of 3,263 BVAS devices were deployed nationwide for the presidential election.
President Tinubu’s legal team, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, and APC’s legal team, led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, both urged the court to reject the witness’s report, claiming it contained significant errors.
After Mr. Nwala’s testimony, the petitioners tendered certified copies of INEC’s Forms EC8A from 20 Local Government Areas in Ogun State, as well as polling unit results (Form EC8A series) from several other LGAs in Ondo, Jigawa, and Rivers States. INEC and the other respondents objected to the admission of these documents as evidence.
Despite the objections, the Justice Tsammani panel accepted the documents and marked them as exhibits. The court adjourned proceedings until Friday to allow the petitioners to conclude their case, after which the respondents will present their defense.