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Atiku's Petition: INEC Ad Hoc Staff to Testify on Election Irregularities

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

Former vice president and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has alleged that the 2023 presidential election was rigged in favor of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Atiku filed a joint petition with his party, alleging that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, installed a third-party device that intercepted and switched results of the presidential election in favor of the APC and its candidate, Tinubu. The petitioners contend that INEC redeployed its in-house ICT expert, Mr. Chidi Nwafor, and replaced him with an IT consultant, Mr. Suleiman Farouk, who ensured that the device intermediated between the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, and the IRev Portal, known as Device Management System, DMS. The alleged manipulation of the election results has led to Atiku's petition to challenge the outcome of the election, with five INEC ad hoc staff members being subpoenaed to testify as special witnesses.

Key Takeaways:

  • Five INEC ad hoc staff members have been subpoenaed to testify as special witnesses in the petitionalsof former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
  • The petitioners allege that INEC installed a third-party device that intercepted and switched results of the presidential election in favor of President Bola Tinubu and the APC.
  • The device, known as Device Management System, DMS, was allegedly used to manipulate the election results, contravening the original design of the BVAS machine to upload data directly to the electronic collation system and the IReV portal.
  • The petitioners contend that INEC redeployed its in-house ICT expert, Mr. Chidi Nwafor, and replaced him with an IT consultant, Mr. Suleiman Farouk, who ensured that the device intermediated between the BVAS and the IRev Portal.
  • The Chairman of the PDP in Anambra state, Mr. Ndubuisi Nwobu, testified that he served as state collation officer for the PDP during the election and observed that in about 30 polling units, results of the election were not uploaded to INEC's I-Rev portal in real-time.
  • Nwobu wrote a letter after the election to complain about the anomalies he observed, including the manifest non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

Statistics:

  • 5 INEC ad hoc staff members have been subpoenaed to testify as special witnesses.
  • 10 Local Government Areas, LGAs, of Kogi State were involved in the petition.
  • 30 polling units in Kogi State had results that were not uploaded to INEC's I-Rev portal in real-time.

Sources:

  • The Nation
  • Punch Newspapers
  • Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC
  • Peoples Democratic Party, PDP
  • All Progressives Congress, APC

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