The Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday has been granted permission by the Court of Appeal in Abuja to commence the reconfiguration of the BVAS machine used in the Just concluded general election, on February 25.
The court directed that the BVAS machine be reconfigured before the forthcoming governorship and state assembly election on Saturday.
The three-member panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh also ordered INEC to ensure that all data is uploaded on the machine’s backend server while certified true copies of the data should be made available to the respondents.
The panel held that stopping INEC from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections.
Earlier, the court had granted the People`s Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, And Peter Obi, of the Labour Party permission to inspect the BVAS machine and other sensitive election materials as requested.
It can also be recalled that as part of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s defence in the suit against him, he had also prayed for a court order to permit him access to the electoral sensitive materials.
The court on March 3, granted him access to these materials as well as restraining INEC from touching the machine until the inspections are being carried out.
INEC in response to this ruling, filed an ex-parte application on March 4, praying the court to vary the ex-parte application order that was delivered in favour of the PDP and LP candidates.
INEC through its lawyer, Tanimu Inuwa, SAN, also urged the court to vary the order that was given on the reconfiguration of the BVAS machine for the governorship election on March 11.
The lawyer said the application became necessary as regards the order given by the court which restrained the commission from further touching the BVAS machine until the inspection process ends and is certified.
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He added that the commission would upload the data at the back end while INEC would need enough time to reconfigure the machine slated to be used in the Saturday election.
Peter Obi’s counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, opposed INEC’s Applicable, he urged the court not to grant them on the basis that they would lose the data needed.
He said, ”All we are seeking is for a physical inspection of the BVAS so that the evidence is obtained before it will be configured,”. The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal subsequently adjourned the case till Wednesday for a ruling, after listening to all submissions.
