Igbo Corner

UPDATED: Court of Appeal grants INEC permission to reconfigure BVAS

Published

2 years ago

March 8, 2023

The Court of Appeal has granted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) it used in the recently held presidential election.

The Court of Appeal granted INEC’s request after the electoral body assured that all data in BVAS machines would be transferred to a back end server before they are reconfigured and will not be tampered with.

The court also ordered INEC to allow the Applicants to inspect and carry out digital forensic examination of all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the elections, as well as to avail them the Certified True Copies (CTC) of the result of the physical inspection of the BVAS.

The INEC deposed in their affidavit that the accreditation data will not be tampered with and that the CTC the Back End Copy shall remain on the Server and BVAS machine.

INEC had insisted that the reconfiguration of the BVAS was necessary since they would be deployed for the next round of elections.

It maintained that without a prompt variation of the order the court earlier granted to Obi and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, especially the aspect restraining it from tampering with formation contained in the BVAS, it would be difficult for it to proceed with the scheduled elections.

By the provision of the Evidence Act, if the evidence is not seen, the Court shall nullify the election on the ground of INEC hiding evidence which would have been against it.

The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, held that stopping the electoral body from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect the impending Governorship and State Assembly elections.

While dismissing objections raised by the Labour Party, and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against INEC’s move to reconfigure all the BVAS, the court insisted that allowing the objections would amount to “tying the hands of the Respondent, INEC”.

The judges noted that INEC had in an affidavit it filed before the court, assured that the accreditation data contained in the BVAS could not be tampered with or lost, as they would be stored and easily retrieved from its accredited back-end server.

It further observed that neither Obi nor LP controverted the depositions in INEC’s affidavit, stressing that since such averments were not challenged, it amounted to an admission by the Applicants.

Nevertheless, the court ordered INEC to allow the Applicants to inspect and carry out a digital forensic examination of all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the elections, as well as to avail them the Certified True Copy of the result of the physical inspection of the BVAS.

The Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led panel faulted Obi and LP for repeating their request to be allowed to scan and make copies of the electoral materials in INEC’s possession as the request was earlier granted.

Obi and his party, in their application marked: CA/PEC/09m/23, had sought permission to be allowed to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS used for the presidential poll.

The Applicants, through their team of lawyers led by Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, said the essence of the application was to enable them to extract data embedded in the BVAS, “which represent the actual results from Polling Units”.

They specifically applied for a “leave to carry out digital forensic and physical inspection of BVAS, etc”, as well as to obtain the Certified True Copy of all the data in the BVAS.

“My lords, this is to ensure that the evidence is preserved before the BVAS are reconfigured by INEC. This is because if they are wiped out, it will affect the substance of our case,” Ikpeazu, SAN, added.

While opposing the application, INEC insisted that granting the request would affect its preparations for the impending Governorship and National Assembly elections.

It told the court that there was a total of 176, 000 BVAS machines that were deployed to polling units during the presidential election.

“Each polling unit has its own particular BVAS machine which we need to configure for the forthcoming elections.

“It will be very difficult for us, within the period, to reconfigure the 176,000 BVAS.

“We have already stated in our affidavit that no information in the BVAS will be lost as we will transfer all the data in the BVAS to our back-end server.

“We need the BVAS configured. So, granting this application will be a clog in the process and may delay the conduct of the elections,” INEC’s lead lawyer, Tanimu Inuwa, SAN, pleaded.