The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) affirms it will on Monday approach the Appeal Court for an order to allow it to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11 state elections.
A credible source within the commission hinted Ejes Gist News Nigeria on Sunday that the order was significant, following an order prohibiting the commission from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until a proper inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies were issued.
The source, who requested anonymity, stated that INEC would need sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS required to conduct the election in all 36 states of the federation, excluding the FCT.
“The commission’s Legal Department is preparing an application to be filed in court on Monday to seek an order to reconfigure its BVAS for Saturday’s Governorship and state House of Assembly elections,” according to a source.
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The source explained that, given the number of BVAS required to conduct the election across states, INEC was required to reconfigure and deploy the BVAS used for the March 25 elections to polling units for the election on Saturday.
The source added that the INEC technical team had to be deployed on time in order to begin the one-by-one reconfiguration of the devices.
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The source stated that the order was crucial if the gubernatorial and state legislative elections scheduled for Saturday were to proceed as planned; otherwise, postponement of the elections was inevitable.
Ejes Gist News Nigeria recalls that on Friday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted permission for the presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to have access to all sensitive materials used by INEC for the February 25 presidential election.
The order was issued by a panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh after hearing two separate ex parte applications filed by the two aggrieved presidential candidates and their political parties.
Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to grant them access to election-related documents in order to support their petitions challenging the outcome of the presidential election.
“An order authorising the applicants to perform electronic scanning and make photocopies of voter registration and ballot papers used in the Feb. 25 election for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“An order authorising the applicants to conduct a Digital Forensic Inspection of the BVAS machines used in the February 25 presidential election in the Federal Republic of Nigeria”
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In addition, the plaintiffs sought an injunction prohibiting INEC from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until a proper inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies were issued.
In its analysis, the court ordered INEC to permit the applicants to inspect all election materials used to conduct the presidential election.
The court authorised the appellants to electronically scan and/or make photocopies of voter registration and ballot papers used in the presidential election.
“Permission is hereby granted to the applicants to conduct Digital Forensic Inspections of BVAS machines used in the February 25, 2023 Presidential Election in the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the court ruled.
