In the aftermath of the judgment by the Osun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has provided clarifications on the discrepancy related to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
The tribunal ruling on Friday nullified the election of Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Ademola Adeleke amid over-voting and additional votes for Adegboyega Oyetola (All Progressives Congress) putting him ahead of Adeleke.
A former Director, of Voter Education, and Publicity, at INEC, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, who made a live appearance in an interview session on Monday, said there should not have been a discrepancy in the 2022 Osun State governorship election.
Osaze-Uzzi explained that the APC obtained a certified copy of the initial server report before some of the data had been transmitted by the BVAS hardware.
It was BVAS that exposed that as it were, and the fact that the BVAS report was relied on. But we have to be careful; which of the BVAS reports was relied on? Was it what was transmitted to the server – to the back-end – or was it the BVAS itself?” he posed.
According to him, there is a need to break the verdict of the tribunal. He added that the majority of the tribunal – “the chairman and the second member” – relied on the initial report and the initial report of the back-end, duly certified by INEC.
“It was downloaded from the server [after it was] transmitted. But a couple of days later – INEC used the word ‘synchronized I’m not too sure I like that word, but – you synchronized and sasaid‘Have all tresulthaavevee ts been transmitted – has all data been transmitted from the machine, BVAS itself, to the server?’