INEC opposes Atiku and Obi's BVAS lawsuit.

INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu

 The Peoples Democratic Party's Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party's Peter Obi were each given orders to review the materials used for the previous presidential election, but the Independent National Electoral Commission has petitioned the Presidential Election Petition Court to modify those orders.

In a move on notice submitted on March 4, INEC asks the court to modify the ruling prohibiting it from tampering with election-related materials.

For the subsequent round of voting, the commission ruled that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System needed to be modified.

Atiku and Obi were given permission to examine election materials used by INEC to conduct the presidential election on February 25 by the appellate court on March 3.

Following two separate ex parte applications submitted by Atiku and Obi, who finished second and third in the presidential election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, respectively, a panel of the appellate court led by Judge Joseph Ikyegh granted the authority.

To be able to reconfigure its 176,846 BVAS for the March 11 governorship and state house of assembly elections, the commission has filed an application with the court, which NAN has seen.

According to NAN, the election umpire's motion to the court included just this one prayer.

Yet, there is no set time for the application's hearing.

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INEC opposes Atiku and Obi’s BVAS lawsuit - NewzUrban

A source claims that INEC has to reconfigure the BVAS used for the elections on February 25 and deploy them to polling places for the elections on March 11. This is due to the quantity of BVAS needed to conduct the election throughout the states.

According to the source, the commission's technical team needed to be dispatched promptly in order to begin the one-by-one reconfiguration of the devices.

The official added that the directive was important since failure to receive it might force the Saturday elections for the state houses of assembly and governor to be postponed.

BVAS devices

The reliable source stated that the order prohibiting INEC from altering the data stored on the BVAS machines until the proper inspection was carried out and Certified True Copies of them were issued necessitated the application, noting that the commission would need enough time to reconfigure the BVAS required to conduct the elections.

Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairperson of Voter Education and Publicity, was unavailable for comment on Monday after not returning calls and a text message regarding the situation.

The PDP has claimed that the electoral commission has not yet complied with the Court of Appeal's decision allowing its presidential candidate to examine poll documents.

This information was Monday provided to The PUNCH by a party member of the National Working Committee.

On the condition of anonymity, the NWC member said that the commission's unwillingness to follow the appeal court's order was a contributing factor in the party chieftains' Monday protest.

"Not because it is not ready, but because INEC has not given the team access to the materials, the legal team of the PDP has not started the process of checking the election-related documents.

"It's too soon to speculate about their hidden agenda, but they can't take away our rights," said the speaker. They can only stall the PDP; they cannot stop it.

There is a component in the legislation that will force them to obey the court's ruling if they refuse to provide us access to the records in the upcoming days, he said.

Don't you think INEC has misused that ruling? asked Dele Momodu, Director of Strategic Communications for the PDP Campaign Council's National Election Management Committee. There is little we can do in the interim if they have also appealed the decision, which is possible.

The PDP, meanwhile, has applauded INEC's request for judicial permission to modify the BVAS.

Ibrahim Abdullahi, the PDP's deputy national publicity secretary, called the development "a second litmus test of the INEC's commitment to credible polls."

But the All Progressives Congress demanded on Monday night that INEC inform Nigerians about the necessity of reconfiguring the BVAS in advance of the poll on Saturday.

APC demands clarifications

Festus Keyamo, the head of the APC presidential campaign committee, stated in an interview that despite having the authority to conduct elections in the nation, INEC still owed People an explanation for why the technological system needed to be changed.

"INEC has the legal authority to do whatever they are doing," he claimed. However, as long as they inform the parties of their plans in order to avoid raising suspicion, there is no issue if they must act within these constraints in order to guarantee free and fair elections.

‘’

Also, I'm not really sure why those systems need to be reconfigured. I believe INEC should clarify to the

‘’ I'm also not sure why those systems need to be reconfigured. Since this is a technological issue, I believe INEC must clearly explain to the general public why it feels the need to take that psychological step.

The public must be informed, according to the commission. We're not here to promote, defend, or condemn INEC, after all. Not at all, we won't. This is because the election on Saturday must be conducted in a proper manner, and we in the ruling party look forward to a free and fair process. The PUNCH was told by Felix Morka, the APC's national publicity secretary, that Nigerians shouldn't always be ready to cast doubt on whatever request the commission might make.

Thus, if INEC decides there is a technical note to reconfigure all of their systems in order to hold the next elections, I am confident that the strategy will result in making the correct decision at the right time.

Hence, I am confident that the strategy for making the correct decision at the right time to authorize INEC to do what is necessary would be approved by the court if INEC thinks there is a technical note to reconfigure all of their systems in order to conduct the next elections.

"I fail to see the source of the alarm. But I believe the media can assist us by visiting INEC and asking why they technically need to alter those BVAS, the man said.

The Labour Party, however, referred to INEC's action over the BVAS reconfiguration as posthumous medicine.

The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council's Director General stated that the party has lost faith in the operations of the electoral commission in an interview with our correspondent, Akin Oshuntokun.

"INEC does everything on its own," he claimed. Where this one will go in the end is unknown. One should not affiliate themselves with INEC. They are not deserving of Nigerians' trust.

We don't trust in this configuration issue," Oshuntokun continued, casting doubt on the influence of the BVAS setup on the elections. Computers and the internet are familiar to all of us. You can only wipe data from the cloud, but you can flash your phone when it is absolutely required.

Upon stepping down from office on May 29, Osuntokun further chastised President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) for failing to live up to his pledge of a legacy of trustworthy elections.

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