Saturday’s elections in doubt as Nigerians await court ruling on BVAS

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The Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday March 11, 2023 are in doubt as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) required for the elections.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) recalls that INEC used the BVAS to conduct the presidential, Senate and House of Representatives elections on Saturday February 25, 2023 and according to the Commission, the machines need to be reconfigured to prepare them for use in the upcoming elections. .

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This is coming as a result of an ex parte orders made in favor of Labor Party and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by the Court of Appeal with regards to inspection of materials used for the national elections.

The appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh had on March 3 granted leave to Atiku Abubakar of the PPD and Mr. Peter Obi of the Labor Party to inspect election materials used by INEC to conduct the February 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).

Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents it used for the presidential election to aid their petitions against the outcome of the presidential election.

“An order granting the applicants’ permission to do electronic scanning and make photocopies of voter’s registration, ballot papers used in the conduct of the election for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on the Feb. 25.

“An order granting leave to the applicants to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the Feb. 25 election for the Office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The plaintiffs also sought an order restraining INEC “from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued”.

The court in its consideration ordered INEC to allow the applicants to inspect all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the presidential election.

The court allowed the appellants to do electronic scanning and/or make photocopies of Voter’s Registration, Ballot Papers used in the conduct of the presidential election.

However, INEC asked the court to vary the order to allow it to reconfigure the BVAS for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

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

Inuwa added that the commission would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections that would take place on Saturday.

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

However, 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” Ikpeazu told the court.

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

The three-member panel of the appellate court after listening to their submissions adjourned until Wednesday [today] for ruling.

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