Posted by
On Thursday, Hitler Nwala, a digital forensic expert, testified before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deleted all presidential election results in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in order to prepare for the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
According to reports, Nwala, a witness for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, presented a report on his study of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) via the petitioners’ attorney, Chris Uche.
Recall that the PDP and Atiku are contesting the Independent National Electoral Commission’s declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President at the Presidential Elections Petition Court.
Despite the respondents’ concerns, the 26th witness’ report was admitted as evidence and marked as exhibits at the resumed hearing of their petition.
According to Hitler, his investigations reveal that the Federal Capital Territory election results from the presidential elections were purposefully removed from the BVAS system.
According to Bwala, “he worked on 110 BVAS machines, which formed the primary source of information for his forensic report.”
He stated that the machines reviewed were solely those from the FCT and that he did not know when the results on the machines were destroyed.
Under cross-examination by INEC counsel Abubakar Mahmoud, the witness stated that he attached a standard device to the BVAS machine to conduct his investigation.
INEC, on the other hand, disputed his assertion, claiming that because he did not verify all of the machines, his claim was incorrect, but the witness stood firm.
Mahmoud then asked the witness if he was aware that inspecting only 110 of the 3,163 BVAS deployed in the FCT amounted to only 3.4% of the total number of BVAS deployed in the FCT and 0.6% of BVAS deployed nationwide.
The attorney also showed the court a BVAS machine, which he urged the witness to access and offer proof that the data was destroyed.
In response, the witness stated that it was improper for him to have direct access to the machine.
“We don’t go directly to the source of evidence.” We extract the evidence and obtain it from a different source.”
“If we access it now, the content will change and the evidence will be tampered with.” Tampering with evidence that will be used in a court of law is unethical, according to Nwala.
While requesting that the BVAS be inspected in court, the chairman of the five-member panel, Justice Haruna Tsammani, informed the counsel that the time given for his cross-examination had expired.
However, Justice Haruna Tsammani postponed the hearing on the case to Friday, June 23rd.