INEC Uploaded Book As Election Result On IREV – Cyber Security Expert Tells Tribunal

A star witness and cyber security expert, Dr. Chibuike Ugwoke, said the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC allegedly engaged in ‘multiple distinct’ uploads of Form EC8As (polling unit results) to the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IRev, in a bid to deny Peter Obi lawful votes in Rivers, Sokoto, among other states, during the February 25 presidential election.

In his review, he told the court that he spotted a book uploaded as polling unit results on the IReV portal by INEC.

Ugwoke who was fielded by Obi before the PEPC, contradicted INEC’s claim that “technical glitches” prevented transmission of the presidential election results electronically.

He argued that upload of the results of the presidential election using the BVAS to the e-transmission server and thereafter to the IReV, cannot reasonably fail on account of failure to differentiate polling units for each state, as earlier claimed by INEC.

“I am aware that polling unit code 32-06-07-001 named Fred Housefall Compound in Buguma West ward in Asari-Toru Local Government of Rivers State has multiple distinct uploads of the form EC8A.

“Also, two of the uploads are the results of the Presidential election, one being for Danfili Awulkiti Pri Sch polling unit (033-06-07-005) in Awulkiti ward, Gudu Local Government Area of Sokoto State.

“I am aware that the BVAS was configured/assigned to a unique polling unit in a ward, in a Local Government in a State,” he said.

He added, “I am further aware that the primary purpose for the configuration of the BVAS as stated above was to preserve the integrity and authenticity of data from each State to the IREV portal.

“From the publicly available Meta-data on the IREV portal, it is evident that INEC had multiple distinct uploads for some polling units.

“Furthermore, I am aware that each BVAS has a unique watermark of the polling unit code imprinted on the image taken and uploaded by the BVAS machine.

“I obtained from the Internet, the uploaded results for polling unit 05-13-01- 002, Badara East, Primary School Badara, in Badara ward, in Kiri Local Government Area, Bauchi State, at https:/linec-cvr-caches3.eu-west-amazonaws.com/cached/results/1 5262/result 173738 1677759074 thumbjpg.

“For this polling unit, there were two different uploads of the form EC8A showing different election results for the same polling unit at each upload.”

Under cross-examination by INEC lawyer, A.B. Mahmoud, Ugwoke said he finished his preliminary report on IREV in March and concluded the final report in May.

The witness also faulted the INEC lawyer on his claim that the IReV portal can develop errors after its deployment on the Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The AWS is a tech company INEC engaged to securely host election results uploaded on the IReV.

Asked if he believes that the AWS runs a shared responsibility model between it and its clients, the expert said “The AWS has three components; confidentiality, integrity and availability. The availability component is the responsibility of AWS.”

Under cross-examination by Wole Olanipekun SAN, Ugwoke denied assisting the Labour Party to write a reply to INEC in their petition before the court.

He was asked to define metadata, to which he said it is the information embedded in media files.

Olanipekun told him he did not explain the metadata information he provided to the Court but the witness disagreed, saying he provided explanation.

Olanipekun said he mentioned or referred to only 3 states, Bauchi, Anambra and Rivers state, in his witness statement, but Ugwoke said he also mentioned Benue State.

“The agreement on security between AWS and a customer is between the parties,” APC counsel, Lateef Fagbemi SAN said but the witness said that submission was incorrect.

Asked if he contacted Amazon Web Services to arrive at his findings, the witness said he did not have to, adding that through his expertise, he interrogated the Amazon server which showed multiple and different uploads of polling unit results on IREV.

The next witness on subpoena (PW11), presented by Obi’s legal team was Barrister Emmanuel Edet, head, legal services department at the National Institute Of Information Development Technology Agency (NITDA)

Obi’s counsel, P.I.N. Ikweto SAN, asked him if INEC secured any certificate of clearance from NITDA to acquire technological devices or services for the election.

“No, we do not have that document(s) in our office,” replied Edet, who said the NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, approved his appearance before the tribunal following a subpoena served on him.

Edet also confirmed that the agency had once revealed that there was an attempt to hack INEC’s website during the presidential election.

The witness that came up next was Yunusa Tanko, a Labour Party member who monitored the presidential election from the party’s situation room.

Led in evidence by Obi’s lead counsel, Livy Uzoukwu SAN, he tendered receipts issued by INEC to LP for payment to access several election documents.

The court admitted them in evidence.

He equally tendered 18,088 blurred polling unit results downloaded from IREV certified by INEC.

The five-man panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted them as evidence.

Yunusa was subsequently stood down from the witness box while cross-examination was adjourned to Friday.