INEC Rejects Labour Party’s Request To Witness BVAS Reconfiguration

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been condemned by the Labour Party (LP) for coming up with the idea to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines after the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, sought to examine the election materials.

LP faulted the claim of INEC backing up data retrieved from BVAS without the presence of independent witnesses and representatives of political parties.

This is coming after the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted the commission’s request to reconfigure the BVAS that was used for the presidential election on the 25th of February, 2023.

The court dismissed the objection by the LP seeking to prevent INEC from reconfiguring the BVAS, adding that it will adversely affect the forthcoming governorship and state Assembly elections.

The spokesman for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko noted that it is wrong of INEC to claim that it had backed up the data from the BVAS without any witness.

According to Tanko, INEC has been constantly changing its rule of engagement to cover up some of the anomalies they earlier observed.

He said, “Are we privy or invited to see what was being backed up? If there is going to be transparency, what INEC needs to do is to invite everybody with their technological experts to see what the commission intends to back up from the original source. Was this done?

“We didn’t want to use that as evidence in the court of law. INEC should not forget that we also have our own results. Anything contradictory to that particular result and what they backed up will be totally unacceptable to us.

“It is clear right from the beginning that INEC deliberately went to court for reconfiguration of the BVAS machines after Obi requested to inspect election materials. Of course, nobody, not even you and I, know the commission can come up with anything like reconfiguration at this time. This was done after we demanded to inspect those machines.

“When you are going into an arrangement, it is always important to tell people about the rule of engagement and ensure you don’t change it. But INEC keeps on changing the rule of engagement in order to cover their shady deals. It is unfortunate that we have to bring INEC down to this particular level.”

He said Obi is consulting with his lawyers to determine whether or not to appeal the court ruling on BVAS reconfiguration.

Tanko also warned the electoral body to endeavour to raise its standard and seek to do the right thing to avoid incurring the wrath of the masses.