Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, a former Director of Voter Education and Publicity at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has provided insights into the election petitions tribunal judgment that dismissed Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the 2022 governorship election in Osun State. On Friday, the Osun State Election Petitions Tribunal ruled to nullify Adeleke’s election, instructing INEC to withdraw his certificate of return and issue a new one to Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
During an appearance on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Osaze-Uzzi explained that discrepancies in the 2022 Osun State governorship election, particularly concerning the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), arose because the APC received an incomplete report that formed the basis of the tribunal’s judgment. He noted that one of the tribunal members, who dissented from the majority opinion, emphasized the importance of using the primary source of information, which is the BVAS machine itself, rather than relying solely on the server data.
Osaze-Uzzi elaborated that both the machines and the server reports were presented as evidence, and there should not have been any discrepancies. However, he pointed out that not all data had been transmitted when the APC acquired the certified copy of the initial server report. He stated, “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 backend – or was it the BVAS itself?”
He stressed the need to dissect the tribunal’s verdict, noting that the majority of the tribunal members, including the chairman and another member, relied on the initial report certified by INEC. Osaze-Uzzi explained that the APC had obtained a certified copy of the initial server report, which included data transmitted by the BVAS hardware. He clarified that the data was downloaded from the server after transmission, but a few days later, INEC referred to the process as “synchronization.” He expressed some skepticism about this terminology, questioning whether all results had indeed been transmitted from the BVAS to the server.
The former INEC director stated that the physical BVAS machine transmits data to a physical server. Upon checking, it was discovered that some data had not been transmitted. Despite these challenges, Osaze-Uzzi encouraged stakeholders to remain optimistic about the use of BVAS, as it played a crucial role in exposing over-voting during the election, which was acknowledged by the tribunal. He described the judgment as a validation of the BVAS’s contribution to enhancing the electoral process.
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