Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party were each granted orders to examine the election-related papers, but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has petitioned the Presidential Election Petition Court to alter those directives.
INEC asks the court to change the decision prohibiting it from tampering with election-related materials in a motion on notice filed on March 4.
The commission determined that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System needs to be changed for the future round of voting.
The appellate court granted Atiku and Obi permission to review election papers used by INEC to conduct the presidential election on February 25 on March 3.
Following two separate ex-parte applications submitted by Atiku and Obi, who finished second and third in the presidential election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, respectively, an appellate court panel led by Judge Joseph Ikyegh granted the permission.
In its application, the commission asks the court to modify the ruling so that it may reorganize its 176,846 BVAS in time for the state's governor and assembly elections on March 11.
It is the only request made in the court application submitted by the electoral umpire.
Yet, there is no set time for the application's hearing.
A source claims that INEC needs to reconfigure the BVAS used for the elections on February 25 and deploy them to polling places for the elections on March 11. This is due to the number of BVAS needed to conduct the election across the states.
According to the source, the commission's technical team needed to be dispatched promptly in order to begin the one-by-one reconfiguration of the devices.
The official added that the directive was important since failure to receive it might force the Saturday elections for the state houses of assembly and governor to be postponed.
The reliable source stated that the order prohibiting INEC from altering the data stored on the BVAS machines until the proper inspection was carried out and Certified True Copies of them were issued necessitated the application, noting that the commission would need enough time to reconfigure the BVAS required to conduct the elections.
Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairperson of Voter Education and Publicity, was unavailable for comment on Monday after not returning calls and a text message regarding the situation.
The PDP, meanwhile, said that the electoral commission had not yet complied with the Court of Appeal's decision allowing its presidential candidate to examine election documents. A member of the National Working Committee of the party disclosed this to newsmen on Monday.
On the condition of anonymity, the NWC member said that the commission's unwillingness to follow the appeal court's order was a contributing factor in the party chieftains' Monday protest.
"Not because it is not ready, but because INEC has not given the team access to the materials, the legal team of the PDP has not started the process of checking the election-related documents.
"It's too soon to speculate about their hidden agenda, but they can't take away our rights," said the speaker. They can only stall the PDP; they cannot stop it.
"If they don't provide us access to the records within the next few days, there is a provision of the law that will compel them to obey the pronouncement of the court,” he said.
Don't you think INEC has abused that ruling? asked Dele Momodu, Director of Strategic Communications for the PDP Campaign Council's National Election Management Committee. There is little we can do in the interim if they have also appealed the decision, which is possible.
Ibrahim Abdullahi, the PDP's deputy national publicity secretary, called the development "a second litmus test of the INEC's commitment to credible polls."
But the All Progressives Congress demanded on Monday night that INEC inform Nigerians about the necessity of reconfiguring the BVAS in advance of the poll on Saturday.
Festus Keyamo, the chief spokesperson for the APC presidential campaign committee, said in an interview that while INEC had been given the authority to conduct elections in the nation, Nigerians still required an explanation for why the technological system needed to be changed.
He asserted, "INEC has the legal authority to take the actions they are. And if they must operate within those constraints to guarantee free and fair elections, there is no issue as long as they communicate their actions to the parties in order to avoid raising suspicion.
I'm also not sure why those systems need to be reconfigured. Since this is a technological issue, I believe INEC must clearly explain to the general public why it feels the need to take that psychological step.
"The commission must provide the public with an explanation. We are not here to promote, defend, or criticize INEC. We won't do that, sorry. This is because the ruling party and I both hope for a transparent and impartial process leading up to the election on Saturday.
Felix Morka, the APC's national publicity secretary, told The PUNCH that Nigerians shouldn't always be ready to cast doubt on every proposal the commission might make.
Hence, I am confident that the strategy for making the correct decision at the right time to authorize INEC to do what is necessary would be approved by the court if INEC thinks there is a technical note to reconfigure all of their systems in order to conduct the next elections.
"I fail to see the source of the alarm. But I believe the media can assist us by visiting INEC and asking why they technically need to alter those BVAS, the man said.
The Labour Party, however, referred to INEC's action over the BVAS reconfiguration as posthumous medicine.
The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council's Director General stated that the party has lost faith in the operations of the electoral commission in an interview with our correspondent, Akin Oshuntokun.
"INEC does everything on its own," he claimed. Where this one will go in the end is unknown. One should not affiliate themselves with INEC. They are not deserving of Nigerians' trust.
Oshuntokun continued, "We don't trust in this configuration stuff. We doubt the impact of the BVAS configuration on the elections. The internet and computers are familiar to all of us. You can only flash your phone if it is really required, but you cannot erase cloud-based data.
Osuntokun further chastised President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) for failing to uphold his pledge to leave a legacy of trustworthy elections before stepping down on May 29.
Post a Comment