Court grants electoral commission permission to reconfigure Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has granted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for the 25 February Presidential and National Assembly elections across the country for the forthcoming Saturday Governorship and Assembly poll.
Penpushing reports that the court granted the order on Wednesday, and equally ruled that the electoral commission should upload the data on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to the back-end server and make certified true copies of the data to the respondents.
The three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh had earlier granted an order permitting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, and his Labour Party (LP) rival, Peter Obi, to inspect the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and other sensitive electoral materials.
Penpushing further reports that both Atiku and Obi, it is recalled had requested access to the electoral materials preparatory to filing their petitions to challenge the outcomes of the 25 presidential elections in court.
The court in the ruling delivered on 3 March 2023, apart from granting them access to the materials, also restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from tampering with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines pending the inspection to be conducted by the candidates.
Penpushing also reports that the electoral body subsequently filed an ex parte application on 4 March, 2023 urging the Court of Appeal to vary the ex parte order made in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party candidates.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prayed the court to vary the order to allow it to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines for the 11 March Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
Penpushing reports that counsel to the electoral commission Tanimu Inuwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said the application became necessary following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines until the due inspection was conducted and certified.
The counsel added that the commission would require sufficient time to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) needed to conduct the election that would take place on Saturday, and informed the court that the electoral body would upload from the back end.
Penpushing further reports that the Deputy Director in the Information and Communication Technology of the commission, Lawrence Bayode in a filing dated 6 March 2023 said there is the need for reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices for the State Governorship and House of Assembly election.
The Deputy Director explained that the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices entails purging the accreditation data on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices.
Penpushing also reports that he, however, clarified that before the purging is approved by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices, the data on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices have to be uploaded to the accreditation backend server.
The Information Technology expert noted that the accreditation data on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices cannot be tampered with and/or lost during upload to the accreditation backend server.
Penpushing reports that, counsel for the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Candidate, Onyechi Ikpeazu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in is argument prayed the court not to grant the electoral commission’s application which he said would mean losing the data they were interested in.
The counsel emphasized that what his counsel was seeking is for a physical inspection of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) so that the evidence is obtained before it will be configured, and therefore opposed the commission’s application and urged the court not to grant it.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that 176,000 the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS machines will be deployed for the Saturday March 11, 2023 polls.
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