The Peoples Democratic Party and Atiku Abubakar on Thursday called a digital forensic expert as a witness to present a forensic report before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal to prove its case against the presidential election.
Led in evidence by the petitioners’ counsel, Chris Uche, the subpoenaed witness who identified himself as Hitler Nwala submitted a report of his investigation carried out on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System. He told the court that he examined 110 BVAS machines as a sample material from the FCT.
Under cross-examination by Abubakar Mahmoud, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, he said the polling unit results contained in the BVAS machine for the FCT was deliberately deleted even though the FCT was not scheduled for governorship election.
The witness said the data he extracted from the BVAS machines deployed in the FCT showed that criminal malpractice took place on the devices and the polling units he analysed, including Polling Units where Atiku Abubakar won.
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Mahmoud questioned the small sample size used, saying the sample size of 110 devices was only 3.5 percent of the total devices deployed in FCT and 0.06 per cent of the total devices deployed in the country during the election. The witness replied that there might be an increase in deviation when the sample size is more.
The witness, while being cross examined by Wole Olanipekun, counsel to President Bola Tinubu admitted making typographical errors by giving different figures for some BVAS machines he inspected.
The witness told the court that as of the time of his inspection of the BVAS machines, nothing was intrinsically wrong with the device, according to him, all the results in the 110 BVAS machines he inspected were deleted but he was able to recover them using a tool called “Celebral Physical Analyser.”
Under cross-examination by APC lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, the witness said he did not bring the tool to court.
He maintained that the polling unit results he mentioned were those on the BVAS machines, not those uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IRev.
The five-man panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, admitted them in evidence, and adjourned to Friday for continuation of hearing on the petition.
