Based on the given information, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) presented its defence in the joint petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and Peter Obi before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC). Dr. Lawrence Bayode, a deputy director in the Information and Communication Technology department of INEC, testified as the sole witness for INEC.
During cross-examination, Bayode stated that even if blurred documents were downloaded from the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), they would not affect the physical results recorded in Forms EC8As, which are not blurred. He also mentioned that the images of Forms EC8A captured with BVAS (Biometric Voter Authentication System) and transmitted to IReV were not relevant for the collation of results.
Bayode was presented with several INEC Form EC8As downloaded from IReV, which were certified by INEC. However, when asked by Peter Obi’s lawyer to read out the scores of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, he couldn’t do so because the scores were blurred. The petitioners alleged that 18,088 polling unit results downloaded from IReV were blurred, potentially amounting to 2.5 million votes for Peter Obi.
Bayode agreed with the assertion by Bola Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun, that the images uploaded on IReV were not relevant for the collation of results. He also confirmed that the E-Naira application launched by the Federal Government on October 18, 2021, had not been activated due to technological issues.
Before testifying, INEC counsel A.B. Mahmoud tendered several documents, including certified true copies of letters from the APC and Bola Tinubu, as well as INEC regulations and guidelines for the conduct of the election and INEC’s manual for election officials in 2023. The court admitted these documents despite objections from Peter Obi’s team.
Mahmoud, on behalf of the witness, also tendered Amazon Web Services cloud trail logs on INEC’s E-transmission system/IREV portal. These logs showed the activity of patches deployed on the e-transmission application to fix glitches encountered on election day.
During cross-examination, Bayode stated that the blurred results downloaded from IReV did not affect the physical results recorded on Form EC8A at polling units. He reiterated that the Form EC8A was the primary source for INEC’s collation of results and that if the results downloaded from IReV were unclear, the physical results could be obtained.
Bayode confirmed that INEC’s e-transmission application was tested before deployment, with the testing conducted on February 4. A document testing report dated February 22 was presented as evidence by Peter Obi’s lawyer and admitted by the court as exhibits.
After Bayode’s testimony, INEC lawyer Abubakar Mahmoud closed the defence in Peter Obi’s petition seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s victory.