Court grants INEC’s request to reconfigure BVAS

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has turned down the request of the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi seeking to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC from Reconfiguring the BVAS equipment used for the conduct of the February 25 Presidential election.

The Court held that granting the request would jeopardize the electoral body in the conduct of the March 11 governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.

The Court agreed with INEC that information on accreditation contained in the BVAS devices had been uploaded into its backup server and could be accessed at any time.

The Appellate 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 Mr. Obi and Labour Party would tie down the hand of INEC in the conduct of the upcoming Saturday gubernatorial election.

It further held that the claims of INEC that information on the BVAS devices cannot be tampered with during uploading or loss during the same purpose was not attacked by Obi and as such, deemed authentic.

The Court of Appeal was filled to capacity with the presence of the presidential candidate for the Labour Party, Peter Obi, the National Chairman of LP, Julius Agbura, and the Senator-Elect representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Anambra state, Victor Umeh, as well as International Observers, were all present in court.

Reporting by Ifeoma Nwovu