Appeal Court dismisses Obi’s request to stop INEC from reconfiguring BVAS machines

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Wednesday granted the request of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to reconfigure the BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

The Appeal Court, in the process, turned down the request of Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi seeking to stop INEC from reconfiguring the BVAS Machines.

INEC had approached the court with a request to reconfigure the BVAS machines preparatory to the 11 March governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.

But, Mr. Obi opposed the move on the ground that INEC was trying to wipe off accreditation of voters during the presidential election.

The court, however,  held that granting Obi’s request would jeopardize the electoral body in the conduct of the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.
The appellate court agreed with INEC that information on accreditation contained in the BVAS devices had been uploaded into its back up server and could be accessed at any time.

The court predicated its agreement with INEC on the ground that all averments in the counter affidavit of the electoral body were not challenged.

The court said that granting the request of Obi and the Labour Party would tie down the hand of INEC in the conduct of Saturday’s gubernatorial election.

The appellate court further held that the claims of INEC that information on the BVAS devices cannot be tampered with during uploading was not attacked by Obi and as such, deemed authentic.

Back to top button