From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) has granted permission to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections across the country.
A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Joseph Ikyegh granted request to allow the electoral body to reconfigure the machines ahead of Saturday’s governorship and Houses of Assembly elections across the 36 states of the federation.
The panel, however, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload the data on the BVAS machines to the back-end server and make certified true copies of the data to the respondents.
It equally ordered INEC to allow the applicants to inspect and carry out digital forensic examination of all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the elections, as well as to avail them the Certified True Copy, CTC, of result of the physical inspection of the BVAS.
The Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led panel faulted Obi and LP for repeating their request to be allowed to scan and make copies of the electoral materials in INEC’s possession.
Noting that the request was earlier granted, the panel held that repeating the prayer amounted to an abuse of court process.
The court had earlier granted an order permitting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, and his Labour Party rival, Peter Obi, to inspect the BVAS machines and other sensitive electoral materials.
Obi and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had in the motion argued on March 7, prayed the court amongst others to be permitted to carry out digital forensic inspection of the BVAS and another order restraining INEC from tampering with the BVAS machines used until they have completed inspection of the BVAS machines, preparatory to filling their petitions
Bu this request was opposed by INEC, which claimed that the said BVAS machines which the plaintiffs sought a restraining order are to be deployed for the governorship and state Houses of Assembly’s election slated for March 11.
INEC had submitted that in order to deploy the BVAS for the March 11 polls, it would require their reconfiguration, praying the court against granting of the order so as not to stall the March 11 elections.
Delivering ruling in the motion, the three-man panel of the appellate court pointed out that the request for forensic inspection of BVAS as well as Certified True Copies of election results from BVAS have been granted the plaintiffs in its ruling of March 3.
The panel however refused to restrain INEC from tampering with the BVAS machines, based on the forthcoming governorship and state Houses of Assembly’s election.
The decision was predicated on submissions of INEC that information in the BVAS to be reconfigured are stored in an accreditation back-end server, which cannot be tampered with, adding that the plaintiffs can always obtain date in the BVAS from the back-end server.
In a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that stopping the electoral body from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect Saturday’s governorship and state assemblies elections.
It dismissed objections that the Labour Party, LP, and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, raised against INEC’s move to reconfigure all the BVAS.
It is the position of the tribunal that allowing the objections by Obi and his party, would amount to “tying the hands of the respondent, INEC.”
It equally noted that INEC had in an affidavit it filed before the court, assured that the accreditation data contained in the BVAS could not be tampered with or lost, as they would be stored and easily retrieved from its accredited back-end server.
The tribunal also observed that neither Obi nor LP controverted the depositions in INEC’s affidavit, stressing that since such averments were not challenged, it amounted to admission by the applicants.
Obi and his party had in their application marked: CA/PEC/09m/23, sought permission to be allowed to conduct physical inspection of all the BVAS that were used for the presidential poll.
His counsel, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, had informed the tribunal that the essence of the application was to enable them to extract data embedded in the BVAS, “which represent the actual results from Polling Units.”
But while opposing the application, INEC told the court that there were a total of 176,000 BVAS that were deployed to polling units during the presidential election.
INEC counsel, Taminu Inuawa, SAN submitted that “Each polling unit has its own particular BVAS machine which we need to configure for the forthcoming elections.
“It will be very difficult for us, within the period, to reconfigure the 176, 000 BVAS. We have already stated in our affidavit that no information in the BVAS will be lost as we will transfer all the data in the BVAS to our back-end server.
“We need the BVAS configured. So, granting this application will be a cog in the process and may delay the conduct of the elections,” Inuwa pleaded.