Due to its inability to commence the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, machines on time, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has postponed the governorship and state assembly elections fixed for March 11 to March 18.
The Court of Appeal, yesterday, gave the commission the nod to reconfigure the BVAS used for the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly polls in readiness for the state elections.
There was confusion within the nation’s political circles on Wednesday night, following speculations that the INEC might have postponed governorship and state assembly elections.
The court had last week stopped the INEC from tampering with the BVAS deployed in last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Obi in his application moved by his team of lawyers, led by Mr Alex Ejesieme, SAN, sought six principal reliefs, while Atiku’s lawyer, Adedamola Faloku, sought seven prayers from the tribunal.
Among the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs were; “An order granting the applicants’ permission to do electronic scanning and make photocopies of voter’s registration, ballot papers used in the conduct of the election for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on the 25th day of February 2023.
“An order granting leave to the applicants to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the 25th February 2023 election for the Office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The plaintiffs also sought an order restraining “the First Respondent from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued”.
The court granted the reliefs and with regards to the BVAS, said; “That leave is hereby granted to the applicants to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the 25th February 2023 Election for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
However, INEC is expected to deploy the same BVAS for the sub-national elections, meaning that the commission will have to reconfigure them and make them fit for purpose.
Checks revealed that it takes an average of five days to configure the BVAS, meaning that the commission has to begin the process of reconfiguration latest by Tuesday.
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