Appeal Court to Deliver Judgement on BVAS Reconfiguration Wednesday
By Ozumi Abdul
The Court of Appeal will on Wednesday deliver its ruling in the application by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking to vary the ex parte order made in favour of Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), with regards to inspection of materials used for the presidential election.
INEC is seeking the permission of the court to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the upcoming governorship elections.
INEC in its motion dated March 4, asked the appellate court to grant it a leave to reconfigure BVAS ahead of Saturday’s elections.
The appellate court had on March 3, granted leave to Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Mr Peter Obi of Labour Party to inspect election materials used by INEC to conduct the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
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The court granted 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.
The INEC legal team 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.
The commission said it would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the election that would take place on Saturday.
INEC added that it would “upload from back-end.”
In his argument, counsel to Obi, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, prayed the court not to grant INEC’s application because 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 reconfigured,” he told the court.
The three-member panel of the appellate court after listening to their submissions adjourned until Wednesday for ruling.
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