Nigeria: Court of Appeal Rules on BVAS, Grants Tinubu Access to Sensitive Materials
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday granted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the governorship and state assembly elections.
A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Joseph Ikyegh in delivering its ruling held that restraining the electoral umpire from reconfiguring the BVAS would constrain it from conducting the 11 March elections.
Recall that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, in an application had sought an order of the court to restrain INEC from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection is conducted and certified true copies (CTC) of them issued.
Meanwhile, the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, has gotten a nod from the Appeal Court to access sensitive materials used by INEC for the conduct of the 25 February presidential election.
A three-man panel of the court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh granted the applicant’s permission to inspect the INEC materials and make photocopies of them.
Tinubu through his lawyer, Akintola Makinde, said he would need to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to enable him to prepare his defense against petitions that would seek to nullify his election.