The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed governorship and state assemblies elections earlier scheduled for this Saturday to next Saturday March 18 considering the Court of Appeal’s go-ahead order to reconfigure Bimodal Voter Accreditation machines (BIVAS).
In a statement by its National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye on Wednesday night, INEC said it could not go ahead with the governorship poll as earlier scheduled because it needed time to reconfigure BIVAS machines, which were used for the presidential election on February 25.
Many Nigerians are however apprehensive over INEC’s election extension considering the fact that the same INEC told the Court that it will only take between two to three days to reconfigure the same machine it now wants to reconfigure for more than one week.
Recall that the Court of Appeal had earlier on Wednesday granted permission to INEC to reconfigure BIVAS used for the presidential election.
Delivering the lead ruling, Justice Haruna Tsammani, said restraining INEC would affect next Saturday’s governorship election. He also chided the applicants for repeating their request to be allowed to scan and make copies of the electoral materials in INEC’s possession, stating that it amounted to an abuse of the court process.
Tsammani noted that INEC had in an affidavit filed before the court assured that the accreditation data contained in the BVAS could not be tampered with or lost.
The jurist further stated that neither Obi nor LP filed a counter-affidavit to challenge the argument in INEC’s affidavit.
Before the court gave INEC the go-ahead on BVAS reconfiguration the commission had yet to start the distribution of election materials in many states.
The commission had told the court on Tuesday that reconfiguration of BVAS would take two or three days.
INEC added that it 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.
“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,” it added.
In all, Nigerians are further worried on why it is going to take INEC a whole one week to reconfigure the BIVAS machine which now leads to the unexplainable postponement of weekend’s election.
