The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Wednesday, turned down the request of the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Gregory Obi seeking to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from reconfiguring the BVAS equipment used for the conduct of the February 25 Presidential election.
The Court held that granting the request would jeopardize the electoral body in the conduct of the March 11 governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
The Court agreed with INEC that information on accreditation contained in the BVAS devices had been uploaded into its back up server and could be accessed at any time.
The Appellate Court predicated its agreement with INEC on the ground that all averments in the counter affidavit of the Electoral body were not challenged.
The Court said that granting the request of Obi and the Labour Party would tie down the hand of INEC in the conduct of the Saturday’s gubernatorial election.
The Court further held that the claims of INEC that information on the BVAS devices cannot be tampered with during uploading was not attacked by Obi and as such, deemed authentic.
..grants Tinubu access to inspect electoral materials
The Appeal Court in Abuja has granted the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, access to inspect electoral materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission during February 25, 2022, general elections.
The PUNCH reports that Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, on Tuesday, urged the Court of Appeal in Abuja to order INEC to grant him access to sensitive materials it used for the presidential election.
Tinubu, through his lawyer, Mr Akintola Makinde, said he would need to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials to enable him to prepare his defence against petitions that would seek to nullify his election.
While Tinubu’s first ex-parte application, which was filed on March 6, has the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi as respondents, in the second application, the Peoples Democratic Party, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were cited as respondents, alongside INEC.
“The materials will be relevant in helping us to prepare our defence and also make comparison with the information contained in INEC’s back-end server,” Makinde said.
But delivering judgment on Wednesday, a three-member panel of the court, in four rulings on Wednesday granted the reliefs sought by Tinubu and APC in the fourth motion ex-parte, except prayers 5 and 6 in the motion filed by Tinubu.
Culled from The Punch & Daily Post
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