Reactions Trail INEC’s Request to Vary Court Order on Inspection of BVAS, Others

Reactions Trail INEC’s Request to Vary Court Order on Inspection of BVAS, Others

The decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission to approach the Court of Appeal in Abuja to vary the order given to the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party to inspect materials used for the conduct the presidential elections on February 25th, 2023 has elicited a mixed-blend of reactions from Nigerians. The electoral commission’s

The decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission to approach the Court of Appeal in Abuja to vary the order given to the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party to inspect materials used for the conduct the presidential elections on February 25th, 2023 has elicited a mixed-blend of reactions from Nigerians.

The electoral commission’s had approached the Court of Appeal to grant it a variation of its earlier order, given to the PDP and the Labour Party to preserve materials used for the election for their inspection for the purpose of using evidence that will be obtained to file their suits against INEC as well as the APC and the declared winner in the election.

INEC’s request is premised on the need to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the governorship elections on March 11th, 2023, noting that the court’s order precluding it from tampering with materials used in the presidential election could impede its preparations for the polls, likely lead to election postponement.

INEC also noted that it has already deployed its technical team to different parts of the country to reconfigure the machines, which would require enough time before the gubernatorial and states’ houses of assembly elections.

But Nigerians are worried by the request from INEC to seek varying order on the existing order given by the appellate court. They wonder why the INEC would want evidence on the BVAS machine removed since information thereon constitute the bulk evidence by the aggrieved parties to prosecute their cases at the tribunal. Some Nigerians also argued that the request would further query INEC’s transparency and accountability for what transpired on February 25th presidential election.

Abumere Osara Esq, a Lagos-based lawyer noted that INEC’s decision to seek varying orders on the reconfiguration of BVAS has elicited questions, suggesting that the electoral commission ought to have met with the stakeholders before making such request.

He noted that INEC’s decision to reconfigure the BVAS may obstruct post-electoral legal proceedings which usually emanate from candidates who are not satisfied with the elections’ outcome and conduct.

“I think perhaps the best thing for INEC to do in this circumstance is to call the political parties, the stakeholders, the CSOs elections observers including international elections observers and explain to all and sundry what actually it intends to achieve by the application it has filed before the court because my own understanding is that when you reconfigure you are trying to arrange or put together in a new or different way.

“And the question that will arise is that when you reconfigure something, what happens to the information or data already stored in the BVAS machine will they be preserved? Will they wipe off? Will they be erased? If the data on the machine is wiped off what materials are available for those who contest the election to rely on to prove their claim that they have won the elections?”

An IT expert who spoke with NDR under anonymity opined that the reconfiguration of BVAS should not affect the results of the presidential elections, however, this will depend on the capacity of the software used in configuring the BVAS. He suggested that INEC must meet with all the concerned parties and open up on the nature of the problem with a view to profering an acceptable solution.

“Reconfiguring BVAS is not supposed to affect the original data saved on BVAS but there can be mistakes. Also, he thinks INEC may have noticed the errors and lapses in the last election and they are trying to reconfigure to increase the security and reliability of BVAS.

“And the question that will arise is that when you reconfigure something, what happens to the information or data already stored in the BVAS machine will they be preserved? Will they wipe off? Will they be erased? If the data on the machine is wiped off what materials are available for those who contest the election to rely on to prove their claim that they have won the elections?”

“To clear INEC suspicion of tampering with data, before reconfiguring, they should provide all political parties interested in accessing their data an avenue of getting what they want while the reconfigure concurrently

“If the BVAS data is secured as INEC assured us earlier, I believe they are talking about encryption of all images uploaded via BVAS, so no one can tamper with it unless it is intentional which will compromise their integrity”

A Twitter user, https://twitter.com/Ayam_cha_redd also raised questions concerning the availability of BVAS provided for the elections, saying that INEC should rectify the challenges it faces or postpone the coming election. “How many BVAS were bought for the election, and how many were budgeted for by the Commission? It is better to be proactive and postpone the elections till all abnormalities have been rectified. He should just resign if he under-forecasted the number of BVAS without considering control evidence.”

It would be recalled that the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi, respectively, had gone to court to challenge the victory of the All Progressives Congress’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was declared the winner of the presidential elections.

The PDP and LP presidential candidates, in their separate applications, got orders from the Court of Appeal to inspect the election materials INEC used to conduct the February 25th presidential elections.

According to the order, the panel of the appellate Court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh said “that leave is hereby granted to the applicants to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the Feb. 25, 2023 Election for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

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