- Grants Tinubu’s Request To Inspect Sensitive Materials
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has given nod to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the February 25 presidential election.
The Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party had kicked against the re-configuration of the BVAS machines, saying it would amount to tampering with evidence in the election petitions seeking to upturn President-elect Bola Tinubu’s victory.
But a three-member panel of justices led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh ruled on Wednesday that the reconfiguration was to enable the commission conduct the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections.
The panel was delivering ruling in an application by the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, seeking access to inspect and certify sensitive materials used for the conduct of the election.
The panel, however, refused the application to stop INEC from reconfiguring the BVAS.
The panel said INEC’s submission that the accreditation data from the 176,000 BVAS used for the election would be uploaded and stored in the backend of the server, was not challenged or controverted by Obi and the LP and thus they were deemed admitted.
The panel also granted an application by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President-elect, Tinubu access to inspect sensitive materials used for the presidential election to enable him and the party defend the petitions filed against them.
