Presidential Tribunal : We transmitted election results to server using a code —Presiding Officer

A Presiding Officer during the February 23 presidential
election, Mr Adejuyitan Olalekan, told the Presidential Election
Petition Tribunal in Abuja, on Monday, that he personally
transmitted the results collated at his polling unit during the
poll.

Olalekan took the witness stand as the petitioners’ third
witness at the instance of the Peoples Democratic Democratic Party
and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who are by their
petition challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and
the All Progressives Congress.

Olalekan who was earlier led by the petitioners’ lead counsel,
Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), to adopt his witness statement on oath as
his evidence-in-chief, was not asked to mention the state or the
polling unit where he worked during the poll.

Under cross-examination by Buhari’s lawyer, Chief Wole
Olanipekun (SAN), Olalekan, who said he was a lecturer at African
Community of Inquiry College of Education in Enugu State,
maintained that he personally transmitted the collated results at
his polling unit.

“I did it myself as the Presiding Officer. I transmitted through
the code provided by INEC,” he said.

But when asked by INEC’s lawyer, Yunus Usman (SAN), Olalekan
said he did not have the name or the number of the server.

Fielding questions from APC’s lawyer, Akin Olujinmi (SAN), the
witness said, “Without the code, you cannot make any transmission
of results”.

But asked if he attached the code with which he claimed to have
transmitted the collated results to his witness statement on oath,
he said he did not but had it on his phone.

While being cross-examined by Olanipekun, the witness maintained
that all the voters at his polling units voted via card reader as
the machine worked perfectly.

He also insisted that INEC did not direct Presiding Officers to
allow voters who could not be authenticated by the card reader
machine to vote manually with their picture captured.

He said, “No, we were not directed to allow people to vote
manually.

“The card reader worked for every voter who came to my polling
unit.”

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