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Presidential Poll: INEC Uploaded Picture Of A Book Instead Of Results – Witness

Published

2 years ago

June 23, 2023

A cyber security expert, Dr. Chibuike Ugwoke, on Thursday, alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, uploaded the picture of a book on its results viewing portal, IReV, instead of results of the presidential election that held on February 25.

Ugwoke, testified before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, as the eight witness, PW-8, in the case the candidate of Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, filed to nullify President Bola Tinubu’s election.

Though the PW-8, who was described as an expert witness, commenced his evidence on Wednesday, however, the court deferred his cross-examination after the Respondents complained that they needed time to study his statement on oath.

Consequently, at the resumed proceedings on Thursday, he was recalled to the witness box, even as all the Respondents took turns to grill him before the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel of the court.

Aside from INEC, other Respondents in the matter, are; President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Answering questions under cross-examination, Dr. Ugwoke, said he conducted analysis on INEC’s ICT infrastructure which he termed as “Meta Data”.

He told the court that the Meta Data, described the actual information in the system.

The witness said he used 12 polling units in three states- Bauchi, Anambra and Rivers state- as focal points of his analysis, adding that he equally made reference to Benue state in his report that was tendered before the court.

He told the court that the petitioners approached him on March 10 to analyse what INEC uploaded to its IReV portal after the presidential election.

“Though I initially sent a preliminary report which was more like an overview, around March 1, I later wrote an elaborate report in the middle of May,” he stated.

The witness, however, admitted that he read Obi’s petition as well as replies by the Respondents, before he wrote his final report that was tendered in evidence.

“I read the replies some time in the middle of my work, that was before the final report was made.”

He told the court that his analysis revealed that INEC officials made incorrect inputs into the IReV portal, using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines.

Asked if he knew the identities of those that made the incorrect inputs, the witness, said: “I don’t know who made the uploads, but it was from the BVAS and the number is there.”

He said though he did not in the course of his assignment, interrogate any INEC official, “but I interrogated the INEC manual.”

Asked if he contacted the Labour Party to give him what should have been the actual results from the polling units, the witness, said: “No my lords, I did not”.

“In one of the instances, the picture of a book was uploaded instead of election results

“I interrogated the Amazon Web Services, AWS, that was how I got to know because the information was there in the server,” he insisted.

He told the court that out of 176, 846 polling units in the country, he chose only 12 of them based “on my proof of consent.”

On claim by INEC that technical glitches hampered the electronic transmission of results, the witness, told the court that such errors in technology could be detected at the time of testing of an application before its deployment.

He said: “Errors arise at the time of testing, but after deployment, the probability for an error to arise may be very negligible. However, it is not impossible for error to arise after deployment.

“I used three states to show that it is possible to display the meta data in the IReV portal.

“I proved that there were errors and I did not have to examine the Forms EC8As, physically, to reach my conclusion.”

Asked if he could tell that results from polling units in the states he analysed, were properly collated, the witness, said: “That was not for me to prove, I only presented the facts.”

He told the court that all he did was from his computer, adding that he was familiar with the AWS, which INEC engaged for the general elections.

“AWS security is a shared responsibility model between the company and a client.

“With respect to security, there are three components; confidentiality, integrity and availability of data.

“Availability simply means that the data would not shut down and will be readily accessible when needed. That aspect is the responsibility of the AWS.”

Asked if there was anything about electronic collating system in a press statement that INEC issued on the use of BVAS, which was cited in his report, the witness, said: “Yes, it was inferred in the last paragraph.”

He went ahead and read the last paragraph of the said press release, where INEC, assured that results of the elections would be electronically transmitted to its IReV portal, in real time.

The witness maintained that by the statement, INEC, inferred that the results would equally be electronically collated.

Nevertheless, Dr. Ugwoke admitted that he did not physically inspect any of the BVAS machines, neither did he interview Mr. Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner that signed the said press statement.

Asked if he was aware that PDP won election in one of the polling units in Bauchi state which he analysed, the witness, said he was not aware.

Asked if he was aware that in one of the polling units in Anambra state, the LP, won with 127 votes, while APC scored zero vote, the witness, said he was not also aware.

“I am not aware. I am only an expert in the subject matter for which I was engaged. I am not biased”, he told the court, adding that he attached links in his report.

Asked to confirm that the results he referenced in his report were not the original copies from INEC, the witness, said: “They are original results from the IReV portal and they are still there.”

However, he said he neither met nor interviewed any official of the electoral body, before the report was written.

More so, the witness, told the court that International Organization for Standardization, ISO, certification, was a statutory requirement for organisations like the INEC under the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Act.

Meanwhile, shortly after Dr. Ugwoke was discharged by the court, another witness, Mr. Emmanuel Edet, mounted the box as the eleventh witness in the matter.

Edet, who is a legal practitioner and head of legal services at NITDA, said he was subpoenaed to appear before the court.

The witness told the court that there was no correspondence between the agency and INEC with respect to ICT technology that was deployed for the 2023 general elections.

He said there was equally no certificate of clearance from the agency that gave approval to INEC for such ICT deployment.

“We don’t have such documents in our office, to the best of my knowledge,” the witness added, saying it was the reason why he did not produce them before the court as requested in the subpoena.

Meanwhile, INEC, through the head of its legal team, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, said it was opposed to the evidence of the witness.

Mahmoud, SAN, argued that evidence of the witness did not comply with the law as he was not listed by the petitioners, ab-initio.

Likewise, lead counsel to President Tinubu, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, contended that paragraph 41(3) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, prohibited such witness from entering the box to testify in the matter.

However, unlike the INEC, both President Tinubu’s lawyer and that of the APC, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, took turns to cross-examine the witness.

Answering questions from Chief Olanipekun, SAN, the witness, said the subpoena was served on him personally, though he informed the Director-General of the agency, who gave him the nod to appear before the court.

The witness further admitted that the Act that established NITDA, does not contain any regulation on cyber security or ISO standards, adding that INEC was not mentioned in any portion of the said Act.

While being cross-examined by counsel to the APC, Fagbemi, SAN, the witness, said he was aware that the Minister of Communication & Digital Economy, had in the wake of the presidential election, disclosed that over 16millio attempts were made to hack INEC’s ICT infrastructure.

The witness said he was equally aware that INEC, being an independent body, did not need authority of any agency to conduct elections.

After he was discharged by the court, the petitioners called their 12th witness, Mr. Tanko Yunusa, who told the court that he was a member of LP’s election Situation Room.

Mr. Yanusa identified a bundle containing several letters the party wrote to INEC.

Besides, he told the court that over 18, 088 results the Commission uploaded to its IReV portal, were blurred.

The Justice Tsammani-led panel adjourned further hearing on the matter till Friday to enable the Respondents to cross-examine the witness.

VANGUARD

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South Korea, Japan Protest China, Russia Aircraft Incursions

Published

1 day ago

December 10, 2025

Editor

South Korea and Japan reacted furiously on Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with both Seoul and Tokyo scrambling jets.

South Korea said it had protested with representatives of China and Russia, while Japan said it had conveyed its “serious concerns” over national security.

According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.

The incident comes as Japan is locked in a dispute with China over comments Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan.

The bombers’ joint flights were “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on X Wednesday.

Top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo had “conveyed to both China and Russia our serious concerns over our national security through diplomatic channels”.

Seoul said Tuesday the Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defence zone and that a complaint had been lodged with the defence attaches of both countries in the South Korean capital.

“Our military will continue to respond actively to the activities of neighbouring countries’ aircraft within the KADIZ in compliance with international law,” said Lee Kwang-suk, director general of the International Policy Bureau at Seoul’s defence ministry, referring to the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone.

South Korea also said it deployed “fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies” in response to the Chinese and Russian incursion into the KADIZ.

The planes were spotted before they entered the air defence identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.

Japan’s defence ministry also scrambled fighter jets to intercept the warplanes.

Beijing later Tuesday confirmed it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.

Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.

Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defence zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.

In November last year, Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defence zone.

Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.

Meanwhile, Tokyo said Monday it had scrambled jets in response to repeated takeoff and landing exercises involving fighter jets and military helicopters from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier as it cruised in international waters near Japan.

It also summoned Beijing’s ambassador after military aircraft from the Liaoning locked radar onto Japanese jets, the latest incident in the row ignited by Takaichi’s comments backing Taiwan.

Takaichi suggested last month that Japan would intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.

AFP

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Thousands Reported To Have Fled DR Congo Fighting As M23 Closes On Key City

Published

2 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Fierce fighting rocked the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday as the Rwanda-backed M23 militia rapidly advanced towards the strategic city of Uvira, with tens of thousands of people fleeing over the nearby border into Burundi, sources said.

The armed group and its Rwandan allies were just a few kilometres (miles) north of Uvira, security and military sources told AFP.

The renewed violence undermined a peace agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump that Kinshasa and Kigali signed less than a week ago, on December 4.

Trump had boasted that the Rwanda-DRC conflict was one of eight he has ended since returning to power in America in January.

With the new fighting, more than 30,000 people have fled the area around Uvira for Burundi in the space of a week, a UN source and a Burundian administrative source told AFP.

The Burundian source told AFP on condition of anonymity he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week. A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the figure.

The Rwanda-backed M23 offensive comes nearly a year after the group seized control of Goma and Bukavu, the two largest cities in eastern DRC, a strategic region rich in natural resources and plagued by conflict for 30 years.

Local people described a state of growing panic as bombardments struck the hills above Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand residents.

“Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. It’s every man for himself,” said one resident reached by telephone.

“We are all under the beds in Uvira — that’s the reality,” another resident said, while a representative of civil society who would not give their name described fighting on the city’s outskirts.

Fighting was also reported in Runingo, another small locality some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Uvira, as the M23 and the Rwandan army closed in.

Burundi views the prospect of Uvira falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat, given that it sits across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura.

The city is the main sizeable locality in the area yet to fall to the M23 and its capture would essentially cut off the zone from DRC control.

Burundi deployed about 10,000 soldiers to eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and security sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to around 18,000 men.

The M23 and Rwandan forces launched their Uvira offensive on December 1.

Rich in natural resources, eastern DRC has been choked by successive conflicts for around three decades.

Violence in the region intensified early this year when M23 fighters seized the key eastern city of Goma in January, followed by Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, a few weeks later.

– Regional risk –

The peace deal meant to quell the fighting was signed last Thursday in Washington by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, with Trump — who called it a “miracle” deal — also putting his signature to it.

The agreement includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as America seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the sector.

But even on the day of the signing, intense fighting took place in South Kivu, where Uvira is located, which included the bombing of houses and schools.

Witnesses and military sources in Uvira said that Congolese soldiers fleeing the fighting had arrived in the city overnight Monday and shops were looted at dawn.

Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday, according to military sources, since the M23 fighters embarked on their latest offensive from Kamanyola, some 70 kilometres north of Uvira.
Since the M23’s lightning offensive early this year, the front had largely stabilised over the past nine months.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye warned in February there was a danger of the conflict escalating into a broader regional war, a fear echoed by the United Nations.

Headline

‘Santa Claus’ Arrested For Possessing, Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

Published

2 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

A 64-year-old man from Hamilton Township has been arrested in the United States after investigators linked him to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

The suspect, identified as Mark Paulino, had been working as a “Santa for hire” at holiday events, a role that placed him in repeated contact with children.

Mercer County officials said the investigation began on 4 December when detectives were alerted to suspicious online activity involving the uploading of child pornography from a residence in Hamilton Township. The probe quickly identified Paulino, a retired elementary school teacher, as the person involved.

Police stated that Paulino had presented himself online as a retired teacher and had recently performed as Santa Claus for photographs and private, corporate, and organisational events. “Because this role involved direct, repeated contact with children, detectives worked around the clock to secure a search warrant,” authorities explained.

The warrant was executed on 5 December, during which police seized multiple items regarded as evidentiary. Paulino was taken into custody without incident and charged with possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials, as well as endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain him pending trial. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have urged members of the public with relevant information to come forward.