David Lawani and Deborah Onyofufeke, Abuja

Following yesterday’s ruling by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (EPT) on the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the presidential election on February 25, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has announced the postponement of the governorship and house of assembly elections to March 18.

The Commission said it met late yesterday to assess its impact on the preparations for the governorship and state houses of assembly elections scheduled earlier for March 11, 2023.

National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, in a statement, said the reason for the postponement of the poll was due to the timing that is not sufficient enough for it to reconfigure after inspection by the opposition parties.

He said the Commission considered it appropriate to allow for the extension of time so that it can reconfigure and conduct the poll on the said date of 18th March 2023.

It would be recalled that on the 3rd March 2023, the Presidential EPT had given an ex-parte order for some political parties to inspect materials used for the Presidential election, including the forensic inspection of over 176,000 BVAS used in the election which are located in INEC LGA offices across the country.

Okoye said the Commission had approached the Tribunal to reconsider the order, given that the BVAS Systems were to be deployed for the Governorship and State Assembly elections and that the lack of a clearly defined timeframe for the inspection could disrupt the Commission’s ability to conduct the outstanding elections.

He said, “For instance, the BVAS can only be activated on the specific date and time of an election. Having been used for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on 25th February 2023, it is necessary to reconfigure the BVAS for activation on the date of the Governorship and State Assembly elections.

“While the ruling of the Tribunal makes it possible for the Commission to commence the preparation of the BVAS for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, it has come far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded.

“Consequently, the Commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the governorship and state assembly elections which will now take place on Saturday 18th March 2023. By this decision, campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday 16th March 2023 i.e. 24 hours before the new date for the election.

“This decision has not been taken lightly but it is necessary to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines from the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on 25th February 2023 and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections. This has been the practice for all elections, including the period when the Commission was using the Smart Card Readers”, he stated.

Explaining further, Okoye added, “However, we wish to reiterate that the Commission is not against litigants inspecting election materials. Consequently, it will continue to grant all litigants access to the materials they require to pursue their cases in court.
“We wish to reassure all political parties and candidates that the data from the Presidential and National Assembly elections will be backed up and available in INEC cloud facilities, including the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

“Political parties can apply for Certified True Copies of the backend data of the BVAS. Also, the results on the BVAS will continue to be available on the IReV for interested parties to access.
“We thank Nigerians and friends of Nigeria for their understanding as we continue to deal with these difficult issues and navigate these challenging times”, he noted.

*Appeal Court grants reconfiguration of BVAS machines, orders Commission to upload data to back-end server, make certified true copies to respondents
Meanwhile, ahead of Saturday’s governorship and house of assembly elections, the Court of Appeal in Abuja yesterday granted INEC the permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections across the country.
In a unanimous judgement, the three-member panel of the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), led by Joseph Ikyegh, granted permission to the electoral body to reconfigure the machines.

The panel, however, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload the data on the BVAS machines to the back-end server and make certified true copies of the data to the respondents.

In the lead judgement by Justice Ikyegh, the court held that restraining the electoral commission would constrain INEC from conducting the March 11 elections.
The court dismissed the appeal that the Labour Party, LP, and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, raised against INEC’s move to reconfigure all the BVAS.
Obi and his party had in their application marked: CA/PEC/09M/23, sought permission to be allowed to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that was used for the presidential election.

The Applicants, through their team of lawyers led by Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), said the essence of the application was to enable them to extract the data in the BVAS, which represents the actual results from Polling Units.

The applicants held that without a prompt variation of the order the court earlier granted to Obi and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, especially the aspect restraining it from tampering with formation contained in the BVAS, it would be difficult for it to proceed with the scheduled elections.

They requested the court to grant them leave to carry out a digital forensic and physical inspection of BVAS, as well as to obtain the Certified True Copy, CTC, of all the data in the BVAS.
They appealed that this is to ensure that the evidence is preserved before the BVAS are reconfigured by INEC adding that if they are wiped out, it will affect the substance of the case.

The court delivering its judgement stated that allowing the appeal by Obi and his party would amount to inconveniencing INEC “tying the hands of the Respondent, INEC”.

The court, however, also clarified that INEC had in an affidavit it filed before the court, made the assurance that the accreditation data contained in the BVAS could not be tampered with or lost, as they would be stored and easily retrieved from its accredited back-end server, which Labour Party and Obi did not object to.

•Orders Commission to upload data to the back-end server, make certified true copies to respondents

The court ordered INEC to allow the applicants to inspect and carry out a digital forensic examination of all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the elections, as well as to avail them the Certified True Copy, of the result of the physical inspection of the BVAS.

While opposing Obi and LP’s application, INEC insisted that granting the request would affect its preparations for the impending Governorship and National Assembly elections.

It told the court that there were a total of 176, 000 BVAS that were deployed to polling units during the presidential election.
Each polling unit has its own particular BVAS machine which we need to configure for the forthcoming elections.

INEC noted that it will be very difficult for them to in such a short space, reconfigure the 176, 000 BVAS if the court were to grant the applicants’ request.
The body added that they have stated in their affidavit that no information in the BVAS will be lost as it will transfer all the data in the BVAS to the backend server.

INEC noted that there is utmost need for the BVAS configured and the court granting the application will be a clog in the process that may delay the conduct of the election.

•Obi present in court

Meanwhile, Obi attended court proceedings with his lawyers.

Obi, in a statement he shared via his Twitter handle yesterday, said that he had decided to cancel his campaign trips to appear in court with his lawyers.