Peter Obi's Lawyers, INEC Present Counter-Arguments as Court Finally Give Judgement on BVAS Inspection Case

• The legal battle over the planned reconfiguration of BVAS by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has finally been put to rest
• Peter Obi and the Labour Party wanted the Court of Appeal to stop the electoral commission from reconfiguring the BVAS machines
• However, the court rejected Obi and the LP's application and granted INEC permission to reconfigure the machines for the March 11 guber polls

FCT, Abuja - Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, was present at the Court of Appeal in Abuja to observe the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) case involving his party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Recall that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja fixed Wednesday, Mach 8, to deliver a ruling on the application by INEC to be allowed to reconfigure BVAS it used for the presidential election.

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However, Labour Party wants the court to allow it to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that was used for the poll as it seeks to challenge President-elect Bola Tinubu's victory in court.

A three-member panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh delivered judgments on the applications filed by the LP and INEC.

What is the argument of LP and Peter Obi?

Counsel for Obi, Onyechi Ikpeazu, argued in court that the essence of the application was to enable them to extract data embedded in the BVAS, which represented the actual results from polling units.

Ikpeazu prayed the court to allow them to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that was used for the presidential election as this is to ensure that the evidence is preserved before the BVAS are reconfigured by INEC.

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He added that if they are wiped out, it will affect the substance of the case.

INEC's lawyer objects

Counsel for INEC, Tanimu Inuwa, however, urged the court to refuse the application filed by the Labour Party.

According to him, granting the request by Obi and the LP would affect its preparations for the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections, Channels TV reported.

Peter Obi, Labour Party vs INEC: Court gives judgement on BVAS inspection

After listening to both parties, the court approved INEC's application to reconfigure BVAS used for the 2023 presidential election.

The three-member panel gave the ruling, explaining that the reconfiguration was to enable the electoral body to conduct the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections.

The panel said INEC’s submission that the accreditation data from the 176,000 BVAS used for the election would be uploaded and stored in the backend of the server, was not challenged or controverted by Obi and the LP and thus they were deemed admitted.

Source: Legit.ng