Tribunal admits in evidence Amazon’s staff report showing INEC server had no glitches

The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal has admitted in evidence report of the health status of the cloud services offered by the Amazon Web Services Incorporated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2023 presidential election.

The report was presented by a witness subpoenaed by the Labour Party, Claretta  Ogar who identified herself as a Cloud Engineer and Architect, and an employee of Amazon Web Services Incorporated,  United States.

Obi’s lawyer Patrick Ikwueto  called witness Ogar to give her evidence  to prove that the electronic transmission of the  presidential election results was not prevented by technical glitches as claimed by INEC,  at the resumption of proceedings on Monday,

According to AIT, a section of the report reveals that there were no technical issues that could have impacted the electronic transmission of results on February 25, 2023, the day when the presidential election took place.

The cloud services  was used by INEC to power the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS)which the commission had alleged suffered technical glitches and preventing the electronic transmission of results.

Despite objections raised by legal team of INEC, president Bola Tinubu,  and the All Progressives Congress, the court admitted the report as evidence, and fixed Tuesday June 20 for cross examination of the witness.

Cross examination of teh witness was adjourned after all respondents argued that they recieved the witness statement late and need more time. Abubakar Mahmoud, INEC’s lawyer told the court that he was given the witness disposition, including several reports, shortly before commencement of proceedings and would need time to study it.

Wole Olanipekun,counsel to Tinubu agreed with INEC’s lawyer and prayed for adjournment. APC’s  lawyer, Charles Uwesoye also aligned with Olanipekun’s submission.

Earlier, more adhoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who were Presiding Officers for the presidential election,  told the court that only the results of the presidential election refused to upload to IREV.

At the resumed hearing on petition filed by Atiku Abubakar  and the Peoples Democratic Party,  three witness told the court in their separate testimonies that the BVAS machine successfully transmitted results for the senatorial and House of Representatives elections successfully, but failed to upload presidential election results to IReV portal after repeated efforts.

The three witnesses, Janet Turaki, Christopher Ardo and Victoria Sani, told the court that they were presiding officers in Yobe, Bauchi and Katsina states respectfully.

Turaki, under cross-examination by counsel to INEC, Mahmoud,  told the court that after she attempted to upload the presidential election result after capturing it with the BVAS machine that the network went awry.

The witness said that having failed to successfully upload the presidential election results, she handed over everything to her ward collation agent and filled out the complaint form that INEC had provided for such purposes.