The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to comply with the order of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), allowing them to carry out forensic examination of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System(BVAS) machines and all information stored in the server /IREV/ backend/ clouds, among others.
“No doubt, the Commission is bound by the orders of the court and cannot choose if, when and/or how to comply with same.
“The unqualified obligation of the Commission, which of course includes INEC officials, is to unhesitatingly comply and give effect to the subsisting order of Court; there is no discretion to exercise here.
While demanding that the Commission immediately comply with the subsisting orders of court, the counsel also demand daily access to all polling documents, voters register, ballot papers and electoral forms/materials for purposes of scanning, forensic audit, expert examination and inspection; daily access to the BVAS machines/devices and server/IREV/backend/clouds for purposes of forensic examination and analysis as well as CTCs of all BVAS accreditation reports, forms EC40A, EC8A, EC8AVP, EC8C, EC8D, EC8E and all other electoral forms/materials on a state by state basis.
The Court in Order No. 6, specifically allowed our clients to carry out forensic examination/analysis of the BVAS machines/devices and all information stored in the server/IREV/backend/clouds, amongst others”, Gadzama stated.
According to the lead counsel, the enrolled court order was duly and promptly served on the Commission on the same 3 March by the court bailiff accompanied by his clients’ representatives.
He said: “We have attached the acknowledged copy of the court order for ease of reference. It is our clients’ brief that upon service of the order, they immediately requested for a date to follow up and they were asked to return on March 6.
“On 6 March, our clients’ representatives led by Adedamola Fanokun, Esq (office of the PDP National Legal Adviser) returned to the Commission ready to commence inspection, examination and obtaining of the electoral materials as ordered by the court but they were informed at the Commission’s legal registry that there was no instruction yet from the Commission on the court order.