HAPPENING NOW: Peter Obi in court today over BVAS inspection case
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi is at the Court of Appeal in Abuja today (Wednesday) over his party’s legal quest to inspect Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and other electoral materials deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
“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,” Obi tweeted early today.
The former governor of Anambra State said he remained committed and would give more attention to his mission to retrieve his mandate.
“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,” he added.
‘Court Premises Not Rally Ground’
He warned Obidients not to turn the court premises into a rally ground but respect the sanctity of the court and allow the legal team to carry out their duties.
The Court of Appeal yesterday slated Wednesday (today) to rule on the application by INEC to be allowed to reconfigure BVAS machines deployed in the over 170,000 polling units for the February 25 elections.
A three-member panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh also adjourned to rule on the application filed by the LP and Obi to be allowed to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that was used for the poll.
Counsel for Obi, Onyechi Ikpeazu, said the essence of the application was to enable them to extract data embedded in the BVAS, which represented 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.
Counsel for INEC, Tanimu Inuwa, however, urged the court to refuse the application, insisting that granting the request by Obi and the LP would affect its preparations for the impending governorship and state assembly elections.
