A staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Sadiya Mohammed Haruna on Saturday, told the Presidential Election Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja that she complied with the guidelines by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the performance of her duty as a presiding officer of her polling unit during the February 25 presidential election.
Sadiya stated this while giving evidence in aid of the petition filed by former vice president Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to challenge the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the presidential election.
The subpoenaed witness told the court under cross-examination by Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), counsel to President Tinubu, that she was not induced by any party agent to do the wrong thing on the day of the presidential election.
She told the court that accreditation of voters and voting were done successfully but found it difficult to transmit the election results captured in form EC8A electronically to INEC portal via the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine.
According to the witness, she registered her complaints of the inability to transmit the results with the use of BVAS.
Another witness, Alheri Ayuba also told the court that she recorded her dissatisfaction with the process of the February 25 election in her reports.
Led in evidence-in-chief by the petitioners’ lead counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), Ayuba prayed the court to adopt her witness statement on oath as her evidence in the petition against the victory of Tinubu.
Ayuba, also a subpoenaed witness, who was a presiding officer in Garki, Abuja during the February 25 presidential elections, told the court that she was not satisfied with the process as she could not transmit the final reports.
Ayuba, an ad-hoc staff of INEC revealed, however, that, besides the transmission of the results, all other issues went well and were satisfactory to her.
Efforts to tender the statement of the witnesses on oath met with objections by the respondents, but the court admitted them as exhibits and reserved ruling on the Objection in the final judgement.
Meanwhile, the Court has adjourned further hearing to Tuesday, June 13, 2023.
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