The Court of Appeal on Wednesday granted INEC permission 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 for the purposes of configuring the BVAS for the election on Saturday.
The panel however , asked INEC to upload data to back-end server and make true Certified copy 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 Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), with regard to inspection of materials used for the presidential election.
BRANDPOWER reports that the appellate court had on March 3, granted leave to Atiku Abubakar of the PPD and Mr Peter Obi of Labour Party to inspect election materials used by INEC to conduct the Feb. 25 presidential election.
The court granted the duo permission following two separate ex parte applications filed by Atiku and Obi, who came second and third respectively in the presidential election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The commission is asking the court to vary the order to allow it 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 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 back-end.
In his argument, counsel for Obi, Dr 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 for a physical inspection of the BVAS so that the evidence is obtained before it will be configured ” he told the court.
He therefore, opposed 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 ruling.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) decision to approach the Court of Appeal in Abuja, for an order varying the permission the court had previously granted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) to inspect materials used by the commission in the conduct of the February 25 presidential election has elicited questions about the integrity of the recently held poll.
INEC said the request was predicated on the need to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in the presidential election before deploying them for the March 11 governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls.
Vanguard reports that however, some IT experts who didn’t want their names in print were unanimous that granting the order would allow the electoral body to tamper with the evidence and compromise the pending litigations on the controversial poll and further worsen the credibility of the entire process.
The IT experts believe that INEC does not need to reconfigure the BVAS ahead of the gubernatorial and the states’ houses of assembly polls.
The presidential candidates of PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and LP, Peter Obi, had in their challenge of the outcome of the presidential election, recently, obtained the order of the court to inspect materials used in the conduct of the poll, including the BVAS.
INEC had declared candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, winner of the presidential election, which was marred by technical challenges.
The Situation Room, which is a coalition of 70 Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, working in support of credible and transparent elections in the country, in a statement it issued in Abuja, said it was concerned about the question of preservation of data collected during the Presidential and National Assembly elections that held on February 25.
