Tribunal: No evidence INEC transmitted results to server

The presidential election petition tribunal says there is no evidence that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) transmitted results of the last presidential election to any server.

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had said results from the server of INEC show he defeated President Muhammadu Buhari in the election.

In his submission to the presidential election tribunal, the former vice-president gave the “unique MAC address and Microsoft product ID of the INEC server” from where the results were obtained.

According to the result declared by INEC from the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT), Buhari polled 15,191,847, while Atiku came second with 11,262,978 votes.

But in his petition submitted at the tribunal, the PDP candidate claimed he garnered a total of 18,356,732 votes to defeat Buhari, who, according to him, polled 16,741,430 votes.

But in his ruling on Thursday, Mohammed Garba, the presiding judge, said the petitioners failed to prove the existence of an INEC server or that the electoral commission transmitted results electronically.

Garba said there is no law in place in Nigeria that allows electronic transmission of results or the transmission of result using card reader.

“I have carefully examined exhibit 28 (INEC Manual for Election) tendered by the petitioners, I did not see where there is provision for electronic transmission of result of election,”  Garba held.
“There is no provision authorising the first respondent (INEC) or any of its officers to transfer election results to any of the server.”