The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has requested the Court of Appeal in Abuja to modify its orders prohibiting it from interfering with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used in the 25 February election.
The court issued the orders when granting Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi permission to examine the sensitive materials used in the election, as they prepare to challenge its outcome. Although INEC declared Mr. Tinubu the winner of the election with 8.8 million votes, Atiku and Obi have accused INEC of election malpractices.
The Court of Appeal has jurisdiction over presidential election petitions filed by aggrieved candidates. INEC has applied to the court for permission to reconfigure its BVAS machines for the 11 March governorship and state parliamentary elections, explaining that it requires sufficient time to deploy the devices to polling units across the 36 states of the federation, excluding the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
INEC’s technical team is responsible for reconfiguring the BVAS machines one by one. If the court grants the order, the election will proceed as scheduled.