INEC Moves to Vary Order Permitting PDP, LP to Inspect Election Materials 

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja, for an order varying the permission the court granted two presidential contestants to inspect materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

INEC said the request was predicated on the need to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in the presidential election before deploying them for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly polls.

Recall that candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, in their protest against the outcome of the presidential election, obtained an order of court to inspect the materials used in the conduct of the poll, including the BVAS.

INEC had declared candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, winner of the presidential election having scored the highest number of votes cast in the election.

Tinubu polled over eight million votes to emerge victorious, while Atiku came second with nearly seven million votes and Obi third, with a little above six million.

Similarly, both Tinubu and Atiku won 12 states each, while Obi won 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Court of Appeal presided over by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, had on Friday while delivering ruling in two separate applications permitted Atiku and Obi to inspect the said materials which they intend to use in proving their allegations of non-compliance and rigging of the poll.

The appellate court in its ruling in an exparte application had permitted Atiku and Obi to inspect “All the electoral materials used in the conduct of the election for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on February 25, 2023”.

The court also permitted them to do electronic scanning and / or make photocopies of Voter’s Registration, ballot papers used in the presidential election.

In addition, both Atiku and Obi are by the order permitted to “carryout digital forensic inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25” presidential election.

However, INEC in a fresh application THISDAY learnt was filed over the weekend, is asking the court to vary the order so as to allow the electoral umpire reconfigure the BVAS for use in the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

No date has however, been fixed for hearing of the application.

According to a source in INEC, 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 True Copies (CTC) issued to the applicants.

The source added that INEC needed  sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS to be used during this Saturday’s poll holding in the 36 states of the federation excluding the FCT.

According to the source, considering the number of BVAS required to conduct the election across the states, INEC needs to reconfigure the BVAS used for the February 25, elections before deploying them to the various polling units.

The source said that the technical team of the commission had to be deployed on time to start the reconfiguration of the devices, which had to be done one by one.

The source maintained that not varying the order could result to a postponement of the March 11 elections.