Obi in Court over BVAS reconfiguration
The Court of Appeal in Abuja was filled to capacity as it prepared to rule on an application filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking that it varies its order granted to Labour Party and People’s Democratic Party to access materials used for the 2023 presidential poll.
Although the ruling was initially scheduled for 2pm on Wednesday, but as at the time of filing this report, the panel of justices had not arrived.
The presidential candidate for the Labour Party, Peter Obi, the National Chairman of LP, Julius Agbura, and the Senator-Elect representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Anambra state, Victor Umeh, as well as International Observers, were all present in court.
The appellate court had granted leave to Mr Obi to inspect the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and other sensitive materials that INEC deployed for the conduct of the February 25 polls.
The court also restrained INEC from tampering with the BVAS machines but INEC approached the appellate court to vary the orders.
The electoral umpire had argued that it needed to reconfigure the BVAS machines and redeploy them for this Saturday’s governorship and state parliamentary elections.
At the previous proceeding, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, scheduled today (Wednesday) for ruling after taking arguments from counsels to INEC and Mr Obi.
Reporting by Ifeoma Nwovu; Editing by Julian Osamoto and Tony Okerafor