Appeal Court grants INEC’s request to tamper with BVAS before Labour, PDP inspection

The decision allowed the electoral office to reconfigure its BVAS infrastructure before opposition parties are able to carry out their inspections.

News Agency of Nigeria • March 8, 2023

Peter Obi, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar.

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Wednesday permitted INEC to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the Saturday governorship and state assemblies elections.

A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh granted leave to the applicant to configure the BVAS for the election on Saturday.

The panel, however, asked INEC to upload data to the back-end server and make true certified copies to the respondents.

INEC, in its motion filed on March 4, asked the appellate court to vary the ex parte order made in favour of the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with regard to the inspection of materials used for the presidential election.

The appellate court had, on March 3, granted leave to Atiku Abubakar of the PPD and Peter Obi of the Labour Party to inspect election materials used by INEC to conduct the February 25 presidential election.

The court granted the duo’s permission following two separate ex parte applications filed by Messrs Atiku and Obi, who came second and third in the presidential election won by Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The commission asks the court to vary the order to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

Counsel to INEC, Tanimu Inuwa, SAN, said the application became necessary following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection was conducted and certified.

He added that the commission would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the election that would take place on Saturday.

He told the court that INEC would upload from the back-end.

In his argument, counsel for Mr Obi, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, prayed the court not to grant INEC’s application for granting it would mean losing the original information there.

” All we are seeking is a physical inspection of the BVAS so that the evidence is obtained before it will be configured,” he told the court.

He, therefore, opposed the INEC application and urged the court not to grant it.

The three-man panel of the appellate court, after listening to their submissions, adjourned until Wednesday for a ruling.

(NAN)

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