Atiku,PDP Back In Court, Want To Participate in Sorting Of Ballot Papers Used For Election

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Wednesday returned to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) with an application seeking an order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow them, or their agents, participate in the process of sorting out the ballot papers used for the election.

The motion ex-parte filed by their lead counsel, Mr. Joe Kyari Gadzama (SAN) is supported by six paragraphs affidavit, deposed to by Nanchang Ndam, a litigation secretary to the lead team set up by the applicants to challenge the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

The motion ex-parte marked CA/PEC/10M/2023 was predicated on 11 grounds.

The applicants, according to the motion want to ensure the sanctity and propriety of the documentary and electronic evidence in the custody of INEC to enable them maintain the election petition in challenging the result declared by the electoral body.

Also, the applicants said there is a need for them to observe/participate in the said sorting and exercise in all the offices of INEC nationwide so as to enable them effectively comply with the order of the tribunal made on March 3, 2023, granting them leave to inspect, scan, carry out forensic examination and analysis of the ballot papers, data form, BVAS/and or card readers, including photocopying of the ballot papers, information stored in the computer server/IREV among others.

In addition, the applicants harped on the need to have their agents, officials and representatives present at the sorting out of the said documents at all the offices of INEC where the exercise is scheduled to take place nationwide so as to ensure transparency and that the ballot papers are not tampered with.

However,when the motion ex-parte, marked: CA/PEC/10M/2023, was called up for hearing on Wednesday, Atiku, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Joe Kyari Gadzama, SAN, told the court that he filed a notice of discontinuance.

According to him,the decision to withdraw the application was a fallout of a meeting his legal team held with the leadership of the electoral body on Tuesday.

“We filed the application owing to challenges and administrative bottlenecks we encountered at the INEC office when we went for access to the election materials as ordered by the court.

“However, before the application dated March 13 could be slated for hearing, INEC, on its own, called our legal team for a meeting.

“It was at that meeting which held yesterday (Tuesday) that all the grey areas were sorted out, with INEC, pledging to allow our agents to observe the process of sorting out some of the electoral materials we requested for, especially the ballot papers.

“Since that was primarily our prayer in the fresh application we filed, we felt that it would not be necessary to proceed with the hearing. So, to save judicial time, we filed a notice of discontinuance which was accordingly granted”.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja last Wednesday(March 8th,2023) granted the request by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow it reconfigure the BVAS machines used during the February 25, presidential and national assembly elections.

The court had upon two separate ex – parte applications on March 3, granted leave to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic ( PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) to inspect the election materials used by INEC to conduct the February 25 presidential election.

But dissatisfied with the order, INEC, on March 6, approached the court, asking it to vary the order to enable it reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11, governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

However, Atiku, PDP, Obi and LP objected to INEC’s objection, insisting that INEC must not be allowed to tamper with the BIVAS and election materials.

According to the LP presidential candidate,Mr.Peter Obi, the order for physical inspection of the BIVAS machine will enable him conduct a forensic investigation.

Onyechi Ikpeazu counsel for Mr. Obi and LP submitted that the party is seeking to obtain the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the material as well as ensure the evidences are present before they are configured.

Ruling on the INEC’s application on Wednesday, a 3-man panel of the Court of Appeal held that granting the objection by Mr. Obi, LP ,Alhaji Atiku and the PDP 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 back up server and could be accessed at any time.

The court agreed with INEC on the ground that all averments in the counter affidavit of the Electoral body were not controverted by the respondents.

The Court said that granting the request of Mr. Obi and Labour Party ( LP ) would tie down the hand of INEC in the conduct of next Saturday elections.

Morerover, the panel noted that the claims of INEC that information on the BVAS devices cannot be tampered with during uploading or lost during the same purpose was not addresses by Obi and as such, deemed valid.

The Labour Party and Mr. Peter Obi had urged the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division to dismiss the application by the Independent National Electoral Commission, seeking to vary its earlier order granted the LP and Peoples Democratic Party to access and conduct physical inspection of materials used for the 2023 presidential poll.

Last Tuesday, a 3-man panel of the Appeal Court heard the application by INEC, and subsequently fixed Wednesday for ruling.

INEC, through it’s counsel, Tanimu Enuwa SAN, had informed the court of it’s motion on notice and a written addresses filed and dated 6th March as well as an affidavit and exhibits attached to substantiate their application.

When asked by the court on how they want the order varied, INEC maintained that their affidavit demonstrated the effect the order will have on the Match 11,2023 election.

“We will run into constitutional crises if you have the elections conducted outside the constitutional time,” Mr Enuwa warned.

Also, the INEC lawyer submitted that
they want the order to inspect election sensitive materials varied in accordance with Section 122 of the Electoral Act, 2022.

INEC pointed out that the application became necessary following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies(CTC) of them were issued.

He said INEC would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the election that would take place in the 36 states of the federation excluding the FCT.

Mr Enuwa said the number of BVAS required to conduct the election across the states, INEC needs to reconfigure the BVAS used for the Feb. 25 elections and deploy them to polling units for the March 11 elections.

INEC maintained that setting aside the ex-parte order was important, adding that not getting it could result to a postponement of Saturday’s governorship and state houses of assembly elections.