Court to rule on INEC, Peter Obi case today

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has requested permission from the Court of Appeal, Abuja to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) that it used for the presidential election.

The court is set to rule on this application on Wednesday, March.

The request was made in preparation for the upcoming governorship and national assembly elections.

Counsel to INEC, Mister Tanimu Inuwa, told the court that there are about 176,000 BVAS machines that were deployed to polling units during the presidential election, and each polling unit has its own particular BVAS machine which they need to configure for the forthcoming elections.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Mr Peter Obi, have filed an application to be allowed to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that were used for the poll.

The purpose of the application is to enable them to extract data embedded in the BVAS, which represents the actual results from polling units.

Onyechi Ikpeazu, Counsel to Obi, has prayed the court to allow them to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that was used for the presidential election.

This is to ensure that the evidence is preserved before the BVAS are reconfigured by INEC. If the data is wiped out, it will affect the substance of the case.

The LP and Obi have also applied to obtain the certified true copy of all the data in the BVAS. However, INEC’s counsel urged the court to refuse the application, insisting that granting the request by Obi and the LP would affect its preparations for the impending elections.

The three-member panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh has adjourned to rule on both applications.

This ruling is significant for the upcoming elections as it will determine whether or not the data from the previous presidential election will be accessible to parties involved in the current case. The BVAS is a crucial component of Nigeria’s electoral process as it ensures that only verified voters are allowed to vote.