Photo: Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, INEC Chairman
INEC can reconfigure BVAS before March 11 polls, says A’Court
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday in Abuja granted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) permission to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) before Saturday’s Governorship and State Assembly Elections.
The commission had in an application approached the court seeking leave to vary its earlier order to enable it to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.
INEC had in the application filed on March 4, prayed the court to vary its ex parte order, which was earlier granted the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), granting them separate leave to inspect INEC sensitive materials used for the presidential election.
Delivering ruling, the three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, varied the earlier order and granted INEC leave to reconfigure the BVAS before the elections.
The panel, however, asked INEC to upload all relevant data to the back-end server and make its Certified True Copy available to the respondents, that is, PDP and LP.
The court had on March 3, granted leave to the PDP and LP alongside their presidential candidates, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and Mr Peter Obi, respectively, to inspect election materials which INEC used in conducting the Feb. 25 presidential election.
The court had granted the leave following two separate ex parte applications filed by the respondents, after coming second and third, respectively, in the presidential election won by Sen Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
INEC’s lawyer, Mr Tanimu Inuwa (SAN) who filed the application on behalf of the commission, explained that it became necessary following the order obtained by respondents restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified.
Inuwa had noted that the commission would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS which would also be needed to conduct the election.
In his argument, counsel for Obi, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu , SAN, had opposed INEC’s application and urged the court not to grant it.
Ikpeazu noted that granting the application would mean losing the original information in the system.
”All we are seeking is for a physical inspection of the BVAS so that the evidence is obtained before it will be configured,” he had told the court.
