Presidential Poll: No technical glitch on February 25 – Amazon tells PEPC
The Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), Abuja, 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, Claretta Ogar, who identified herself as a Cloud Engineer and Architect, and an employee of Amazon Web Services Incorporated, United States.
Ogar was subpoenaed by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Obi had argued against INEC’s claim that the electronic transmission of the presidential election results was prevented by technical glitches.
While adopting her witness statement on oath deposed to on June 19, at the registry of the court, a copy of her resume including her appointment letter from Amazon Web Services Incorporated and six volumes reports of the 33 regions, where Amazon Web Services hosted their servers, were tendered as exhibits.
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 Presidential election results.
However, when led in evidence by Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), Counsel to the petitioners, Ogar told the court that there was no “technical glitch” across all the six continents housing Amazon Web Services (AWS), on February 25, when the presidential and National Assembly elections held.
Speaking on the witness’ statement on oath, Ikwueto (SAN), pointed out that the report on the health status of the AWS cloud services in the region showed that there was no technical glitches on February 25, 2023, in the region.
Despite objections raised by legal team of INEC, President Bola Tinubu, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the court admitted the report as evidence, and fixed Tuesday, June 20, for cross examination of the witness.
Although the respondents all opposed to the admittance of the witness and her deposition, the court, however, admitted the report as evidence, and fixed Tuesday, June 20.
Cross examination of the witness was adjourned after all respondents argued that they received 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 failed to upload to IREV.
At the resumed hearing on petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party, three witnesses 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 respectively.
Credit: The Will
