The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has kicked the request by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi to witness the reconfiguration of the BVAS machines used for the February 25 election.
This is as appellate court in Abuja granted the commission’s request to reconfigure the BVAS machines, while dismissing the objection by the LP seeking to prevent INEC from doing so.
The court also ruled that not reconfiguring the machines will adversely affect the forthcoming governorship and state Assembly elections.
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However, the LP has condemned INEC for coming up with the idea to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines after the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, sought to examine the election materials.
The party faulted the claim by INEC that it already backed up the data retrieved from BVAS, adding that such ought to be done in the presence of independent witnesses and representatives of political parties.
Spokesman for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko stressed that it is wrong of INEC to claim that it had backed up the data from the BVAS without any witness.
According to Tanko, INEC has been constantly changing its rule of engagement to cover up some of the anomalies they earlier observed.
He said, “Are we privy or invited to see what was being backed up? If there is going to be transparency, what INEC needs to do is to invite everybody with their technological experts to see what the commission intends to back up from the original source. Was this done?
“We didn’t want to use that as evidence in the court of law. INEC should not forget that we also have our own results. Anything contradictory to that particular result and what they backed up will be totally unacceptable to us.
“It is clear right from the beginning that INEC deliberately went to court for reconfiguration of the BVAS machines after Obi requested to inspect election materials.
“Of course, nobody, not even you and I, know the commission can come up with anything like reconfiguration at this time. This was done after we demanded to inspect those machines.
“When you are going into an arrangement, it is always important to tell people about the rule of engagement and ensure you don’t change it. But INEC keeps on changing the rule of engagement in order to cover their shady deals. It is unfortunate that we have to bring INEC down to this particular level.”
Tanko revealed that Obi was consulting with his lawyers to determine whether or not to appeal the court ruling on the BVAS reconfiguration.
