A COALITION of human rights organisations under the aegis of Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR) and major opposition political parties have faulted a motion filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
INEC had approached the Appeal Court to allow it reconfigure the accreditation machines used during the Presidential and National Assembly elections ahead of gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly polls slated for March 11.
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INEC’s motion is coming days after the court had granted presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi permission to inspect the BVAS and other sensitive election materials after the duo alleged that the February 25 presidential election was mired with fraud and irregularities.
In press statements issued on Tuesday, March 7, the NCSSR, PDP and the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) said INEC’s move will pose additional credibility questions over the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
The Conveners of NCSSR, Ene Obi, Asma’u Joda and James Ugochuku said the Coalition was concerned about the preservation of data collected during the last poll.
“Reports indicating that the BVAS may need to be reconfigured or even erased for the upcoming State Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections due on Saturday, March 11, 2023 is a serious cause for concern”, the statement said.
The PDP described the motion as a “desperate move by INEC to destroy and erase evidence of its intolerable rigging of February 25th presidential election”.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, alleged that INEC was “frustrating the desire of Nigerians to get redress through the court”.
He said; “In the obnoxious motion, INEC admitted that the ‘BVAS application stores the accreditation data for all voters accredited on the device for the presidential, senatorial districts and House of Representatives elections conducted on the February 25” and that the reconfiguration of the BVAS devices ‘entails purging the accreditation data on the BVAS devices”.
Similarly, spokesperson of NNPP’s Presidential Campaign Council, Ladipo Johnson said the move by INEC would be subject to litigation.
He said: “It is on authority that INEC is trying to black out the evidence against them. Once they reconfigure the BVAS, there won’t be traces of the information with regard to the presidential election. And we said No to that.’’
He added that “the only time we will allow BVAS to be reconfigured is when they provide evidence of the February 25 election. INEC should be aware that their conduct would be subject to litigation”.
However, INEC’s lead counsel, Tanimu Inuwa dismissed the concerns raised that reconfiguration of the BVAS will affect data collected during the election.
Inuwa argued on Tuesday, March 7,at the Appeal Court that deploying the BVAS without reconfiguring it will affect the gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly election slated for Saturday, March 11.
Justice Joseph Ikyegh adjourned ruling on the matter till Wednesday, march 8.
Sinafi Omanga is a multimedia journalist and researcher with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. He has a keen interest in humanitarian reporting, social justice, and environment.
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