Tag: BVAS

Tribunal dismisses INEC’s request to vary orders in Atiku, Obi’s favour

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday rejected the application by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to vary the orders it earlier granted to the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively, to inspect election materials used during the presidential poll.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the court issued the restraining order in the ruling it gave on Friday granting permission to Atiku and Obi to inspect the sensitive materials used for the conduct of the February 25 election.

Both Atiku and Obi obtained the order to challenge the outcome of the election which they alleged was marred by fraud and other irregularities.

INEC on March 1 declared the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu, the winner of the election but the PDP and the LP candidates are contesting the outcome.

They subsequently filed separate ex parte applications, praying to be granted access to inspect sensitive materials that INEC used for the conduct of the presidential poll.

But INEC, in a motion on the notice filed on March 4, asked the court to vary the order restraining it from tampering with materials used for the election.

The commission said it needed to reconfigure the BVAS for the next round of elections which would be held on Saturday.

But the court, in its ruling on Wednesday, said the application was unnecessary because it never granted permission to Atiku, Obi and their parties to scientifically access and inspect INEC’s database, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices.

The tribunal said the apprehension being expressed by INEC, which includes the possible revelation of the identities of voters and their voting choices, was unnecessary because no applicant was granted leave to access INEC’s database.

March 8, 2023
INEC gets court’s clearance to reconfigure BVAS

The Presidential Election Petition Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday, granted the request of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) it used for the presidential election.

The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that preventing
the electoral umpire from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect the forthcoming governorship and State Assembly elections.

It dismissed objections that the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to the request.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that INEC’s decision to approach the Court of Appeal in Abuja, for an order varying the permission the court had previously granted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) to inspect materials used by the commission in the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

According to the commission, the request was predicated on the need to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in the presidential election before deploying them for the March 11 governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls.

However, some IT experts who did not want their names in print opined that granting the order would allow the electoral body to tamper with the evidence and compromise the pending litigations on the controversial poll and further worsen the credibility of the entire process.

The IT experts believe that INEC does not need to reconfigure the BVAS ahead of the gubernatorial and the states’ houses of assembly polls.

The presidential candidates of PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and LP, Peter Obi, had in their challenge of the outcome of the presidential election, recently, obtained the order of the court to inspect materials used in the conduct of the poll, including the BVAS.

INEC had declared candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, winner of the presidential election, which was marred by technical challenges.

The controversial poll has been rejected by the two leading opposition parties and had been criticised by international observers and civil society organisations.

Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, was said to have polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival and presidential candidate of PDP, Atiku, who scored 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of LP, who polled 6,101,533 votes, in an election that INEC failed to ensure instantaneous transmission of results to its IReV at the conclusion of voting at polling units as originally planned for the 2023 general election.

Both Tinubu and Atiku won 12 states each, while Obi won 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Court of Appeal presided by Justice Joseph Ikyegh had last Friday, while delivering ruling in two separate applications, permitted Atiku and Obi to inspect the said materials, which they intended to use in proving their allegations of non-compliance and rigging of the poll.

The appellate court, ruling in an ex parte application, permitted Atiku and Obi to inspect, “All the electoral materials used in the conduct of the election for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on February 25, 2023.”

The court also permitted Atiku and Obi to do electronic scanning and/or make photocopies of Voter’s Registration and ballot papers used in the presidential election.

In addition, both Atiku and Obi were by the order permitted to, “Carryout digital forensic inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25” presidential election.

March 8, 2023
BREAKING: Court grants INEC permission to reconfigure BVAS

The Court of Appeal on Wednesday granted INEC permission to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the Saturday Governorship and State Assemblies Elections.

A three-member panel of the appellate court , led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, granted leave to the applicant for the purposes of configuring the BVAS for the election on Saturday.

The panel, however, asked INEC to upload data to back-end server and make true certified copy to the respondents .

INEC in its motion filed on March 4, asked the appellate court to vary the ex parte order made in favour of Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), with regards to inspection of materials used for the presidential election.

The appellate court had on March 3, granted leave to Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Mr Peter Obi of Labour Party to inspect election materials used by INEC to conduct the Feb. 25 presidential election.

Details shortly…

March 8, 2023
Fix BVAS anomaly before Gov, Assembly Elections, NBA urges INEC

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fix all bugs or glitches in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines before the March 11 governorship and state assemblies’ elections.

The Bar also asked INEC to exclude its collation and returning officers with proven cases of misconduct in the February 25 elections from the forthcoming polls.

NBA National Publicity Secretary, Akorede Lawal, stated this in an interim report released on Tuesday.

The NBA deployed over 1000 INEC-accredited observers drawn from the 128 Branches of the Bar to monitor the February 25 polls.

“In the main, the NBA Observers expressed some satisfaction with the conduct of the election on 25th February, 2023 but have also identified major challenges that should be addressed for future elections.

“These include the late arrival of INEC officials and ballot materials at the polling stations, malfunctioning BVAS machines, limited or non-transmission of the results from the polling units to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), insecurity at some polling units including violent attacks on voters and officials, voter intimidation, snatching and destruction of voting materials, significant cases of vote-buying and limited access facilities for persons living with disabilities,” the report partly read.

“Generally, findings from the observation process “indicated that only a quarter of the electorate were excellently impressed with the conduct of the ballots (27.1%) while majority of the voters (64.6%) were somewhat satisfied, only 8.2% rated the election poor or very poor.”

“Stemming from these observations and in view of the impending Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections fixed for 11th March, 2023, the NBA urges INEC to ensure that all bugs or glitches in the BVAS machines and other election technology are fixed and improved and that INEC staff (including collation and returning officers) with proven cases of misconduct in the 25th February, 2023 election be excluded from the 11th March, 2023 election.

“The Inspector General of Police is also urged to ensure the timely deployment of police officers on duty for the 11th March 2023 Elections. Political parties are equally advised to educate their members and supporters on the need to eschew all forms of actions in violation of the Electoral Act.”

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that NBA also commended Nigerians for their resilience and perseverance in carrying out their civic duties during the Presidential and National Assembly elections and encouraged citizens to show same values and resolve in the forthcoming Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.

March 8, 2023
How Peter Obi arrived Appeal Court ahead of ruling on INEC’s request to reconfigure BVAS [PHOTOS]

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Wednesday, arrived at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, ahead of ruling on a request by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconfigure the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

Obi had obtained the appellate court’s permission to inspect sensitive electoral materials including the BVAS machines that were deployed in the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections on 25 February.

But INEC approached the court seeking to reconfigure and deploy the equipment for the conduct of the Saturday, 11 March governorship and state parliamentary elections.

The appellate court is to rule on the electoral umpire’s application today, Wednesday.

Obi arrived at the Court at about 1:35 p.m . in company with the Labour Party national chairman, Julius Abure, and senator-elect, Victor Umeh.

The former Anambra State governor who came third in the results of the presidential election announced by INEC had announced his decision to challenge the outcome of the poll in court.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that a three-member panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh had slated Wednesday, March 8, 2023, to rule on the application by INEC to be allowed to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) it used for the presidential election.

A three-member panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh also adjourned to rule on the application filed by the Labour Party (LP), and its candidate, Mr Peter Obi, to be allowed to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that was used for the poll.

Onyechi Ikpeazu, Counsel to Obi says the essence of the application was to enable them to extract data embedded in the BVAS, which represents 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.

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

They equally applied to obtain the certified true copy, of all the data in the BVAS.

Counsel to INEC, Mister Tanimu Inuwa, urged the court to refuse the application, insisting that granting the request by obi and the Labour Party (LP) would affect its preparations for the impending governorship and national assembly elections.

It told the court that there are about 176, 000 BVAS that were deployed to polling units during the presidential election, and each polling unit has its own particular BVAS machine which they need to configure for the forthcoming elections. He says it will be very difficult to reconfigure the number, within the period, within the period, to reconfigure the 176,000

He added that no information in the BVAS will be lost as they will transfer all the data in the BVAS to their backend server.

See photos below

March 8, 2023
I am personally heading to the court today with our lawyers – Peter Obi

Mr Peter Obi, candidate of Labour Party in the just concluded presidential election has disclosed that he will personally be at the Court of Appeal today with his lawyers.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Appeal Court granted leave to Mr Obi to inspect election materials used by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the February 25 presidential election.

However, the Labour Party presidential candidate reveals that the electoral umpire has refused to allow his party to inspect the materials, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the election.

“I am supposed to commence our whistle-stop campaign for our various Labour Party Governorship and State Assembly Candidates today. Initially, my trip was to take me to Nasarawa, Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Borno, etc.

“However, following INEC’s refusal to allow our party to inspect the materials (including BVAS) from the 25th February presidential elections, I am personally heading to the Court today with our lawyers.

“As we pursue due process and defer to the rule of law, I urge all the OBIdients in the various states to continue campaigning for our candidates, namely, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour in Lagos, Chijoke Edeoga in Enugu, Patrick Dakum in Plateau, Alex Otti in Abia, Ken Pela in Delta, Ibrahim Mshelia in Borno, to name just a few.

“It is also imperative that Obidients vote for candidates with Competence, Character, Capacity, and Compassion. I remain committed and will give more attention to our mission of retrieving our mandate. A new Nigeria is possible,” Obi said.

March 8, 2023
Saturday’s elections in doubt as Nigerians await court ruling on BVAS

The Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday March 11, 2023 are in doubt as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) required for the elections.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) recalls that INEC used the BVAS to conduct the presidential, Senate and House of Representatives elections on Saturday February 25, 2023 and according to the Commission, the machines need to be reconfigured to prepare them for use in the forthcoming elections.

This is coming as a result of an ex parte orders made in favour of Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by the Court of Appeal with regards to inspection of materials used for the national elections.

The appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh had on March 3 granted leave to Atiku Abubakar of the PPD and Mr Peter Obi of Labour Party to inspect election materials used by INEC to conduct the February 25 presidential election.

The court granted the duo permission following two separate ex parte applications filed by Atiku and Obi, who came second and third respectively in the presidential election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents it used for the presidential election to aid their petitions against the outcome of the presidential election.

“An order granting the applicants’ permission to do electronic scanning and make photocopies of voter’s registration, ballot papers used in the conduct of the election for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on the Feb. 25.

“An order granting leave to the applicants to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the Feb. 25 election for the Office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The plaintiffs also sought an order restraining INEC “from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued”.

The court in its consideration ordered INEC to allow the applicants inspect all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the presidential election.

The court permitted the appallants to do electronic scanning and/or make photocopies of Voter’s Registration, Ballot Papers used in the conduct of the presidential election.

However, INEC asked the court to vary the order to allow it to reconfigure the BVAS for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

Counsel to INEC, Tanimu Inuwa, SAN said the application became necessary following the order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified.

Inuwa added that the commission would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections that would take place on Saturday.

He told the court that INEC would “upload from back-end”.

However, in his argument, counsel for Obi, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN prayed the court not to grant INEC’s application for granting it would mean losing the original information there.

”All we are seeking is for a physical inspection of the BVAS so that the evidence is obtained before it will be configured” Ikpeazu told the court.

He therefore, opposed INEC application and urged the court not to grant it.

The three-member panel of the appellate court after listening to their submissions adjourned until Wednesday [today] for ruling.

March 8, 2023
Analysis: How post-presidential election audit may delay March 11 elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has filed a motion asking the Court of Appeal to vary the ex parte order given in favour of the Labour Party (LP) and People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), to inspect materials used for the presidential election.

INEC’s application is sequel to a court order by Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led panel of the appellate court, granting the LP and PDP access to all the sensitive materials deployed for the presidential elections by the Commission, including the controversial Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

Both political parties are contesting the outcome of the February 25 presidential election won by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu, citing Section146 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, Paragraph 47 (1, 2 &3) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act of 2022, and Section 6 (6) A & B of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

However, in the application filed by INEC, the Commission is asking the court to vary the order to allow it to reconfigure its BVAS machines for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

“If the court does not grant a waiver to INEC to reconfigure the BVAS machines, the elections might be postponed,” a source in the Commission told this newspaper.

The source further explained that the reconfiguration entails wiping out previous accreditation stored in the BVAS machines so that the exact number of voters who present themselves for the Gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections would be accurately accounted for.

When our reporter sought to know if the BVAS was able to detect when a voter has been accredited more than once, our source said: “It can because when you come, there is a statistics there (sic). The BVAS machine can show the VIN (Voter Identification Number) all the people that have successfully done accreditation”.

This means that in areas where votes are alleged to have been rigged in favour of a candidate, accessing the accreditation data and conducting a forensic examination on the fingerprints stamped on ballot papers in a particular polling unit, can help determine whether an election fraud was committed.

The source went on to explain what could happen if the court grants INEC the permission it is requesting to reconfigure its BVAS machines.

“That means they (LP and PDP) would have to make do with the records backed up in the server, because after voting, field officials are required to export their data which goes to the server.

“While hardcopy results are uploaded to the IReV portal which can be accessed by the public, the accreditation data is exported to the server either during or after polls to ensure that the entire process is well documented”.

However, findings show that unlike the accreditation process which can be done offline, exporting the data to INEC’s server requires internet and for areas without network coverage where officials are unable to promptly export the accreditation data after polls, the Commission has no way of ensuring that they do so afterwards.

Moreso, even in areas where there is internet coverage, the source could not confirm whether all accreditation data were uploaded to the server, making it unreliable for the post-presidential election audit.

Some IT experts have expressed the view that INEC does not need to reconfigure its BVAS machines for the March 11 elections and that granting the order would allow the electoral body to tamper with the evidence and compromise the pending litigations on the controversial poll.

No date has, however, been fixed for hearing of the application but the Commission says it would require sufficient time to manually reconfigure about 176, 846 BVAS machines which will be deployed for the election holding by the weekend.

Nevertheless, the LP and PDP believed that accessing the records contained in the BVAS is crucial to proving their claims of electoral malpractices perpetrated by INEC officials during the February 25 election.

INEC has vowed it will punish any of its officials found culpable of misconduct during the electoral exercise.

March 7, 2023
March 11 Polls: INEC to seek court permission to reconfigure BVAS

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will on Monday approach the Appeal Court for an order to allow it reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11 state elections.

A credible source in the commission hinted NAN on Sunday that the order was significant following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued.

The source, who requested not to be qouted, said that INEC would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the election that would take place in all the 36 states of the federation, except the FCT.

“The commission’s Legal Department is actually preparing an application to be filled in the court on Monday to seek an order for it to reconfigure its BVAS for Saturday Governorship and State Houses of Assembly election,” the source said.

The source explained that considering the number of BVAS required to conduct the election across states, INEC needed to reconfigure the BVAS used for the March 25 elections and deploy them to polling units for the Saturday election.

The source added that INEC technical team have to be deployed on time to commence the re-configuration of the device which have to be done one by one.

The source said the order was important if the Saturday Governorship and state Houses of Assembly election must hold as scheduled, otherwise the postponement of the election became inevitable.

Recalled that the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday granted leave to the Presidential Candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC for the conduct of the Feb. 25 presidential election.

A panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the order after it heard two separate ex parte applications the two aggrieved presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.

Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents it used for the presidential election to aid their petitions against the outcome of the presidential election.

“An order granting the applicants’ permission to do electronic scanning and make photocopies of voter’s registration, ballot papers used in the conduct of the election for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on the Feb. 25.

“An order granting leave to the applicants to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the Feb. 25 election for the Office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The plaintiffs also sought an order restraining INEC “from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued”.

The court in its consideration ordered INEC to allow the applicants inspect all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the presidential election.

The court permitted the appallants to do electronic scanning and/or make photocopies of Voter’s Registration, Ballot Papers used in the conduct of the presidential election.

“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,” the court ordered.

March 6, 2023
INEC should apologize to Nigerians, cancel election – Ikubese

The convener of the YesWeFit Revolutionary Movement, Dr. Thomas-Wilson Ikubese has demanded an apology from the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) over the many controversies trailing the presidential election held on Saturday.

Ikubese advised the electoral body to cancel the ongoing collation process and reorganize another election to restore the confidence of Nigerians in the electoral process.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the medical practitioner appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene for the sake of the peace of the country.

He said after the polls, ad-hoc personnel of INEC were unable to upload the results to the IReV server via the BVAS machine.

He stated that the development had raised avoidable suspicions, particularly that the commission had been attributing the hitches to technical reasons.

“The introduction of BVAS and iREV ensures that it will be one-man-one-vote and that the figures of votes cast per polling unit will be transmitted immediately to the INEC portal untampered as reflected in the new electoral act 2022

“A few that managed to upload did so using the offline mode, a process that many claimed is subject to manipulation.

“Since the serial announcement of results began at the National Collation Center in Abuja on Sunday 26th February 2023, political parties have raised serious objections to the figures being assigned to their parties, claiming that these digits do not reflect the votes cast at the various polling units across the country

February 28, 2023