The court on Wednesday refused the request by Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi who is contesting the result of last month’s presidential election, to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from reconfiguring the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, for the governorship and state houses of assembly elections billed for Saturday, March 11
Lp had argued that allowing the electoral body to reconfigure the voting system will destroy the evidence for his case against the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, who was declared the winner. .
It would be recalled that the BVAS, which uses finger prints and facial recognition was used for the presidential poll election on February, 25.
Consequently, inec is praying the court to grant it permission to reconfigure the BVAS which it intends to use for the coming state election in March 11.
But, the prayers of the Labour Party was turned down, Wednesday, when Justice Haruna Tsamani said, granting the request will hindr the electoral body from performing its constitutional duties.
Both Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party respectively have expressed their lack of confidence in the electoral body over the way and manner the presidential poll was conducted and therefore, called for a cancellation of the result .
Election observers from the European Union, the Commonwealth and other bodies reported a range of problems during voting and counting, including failures in systems designed to prevent vote manipulation.
Meanwhile, following the judge’s verdict, INEC has decided to shift by one week the state election due to take place on Saturday, March 11 to Saturday, March 18, in order to gain sufficient time within which to complete the reconfiguration of the voting system.
Reports, however, has it that Peter Obi has headed to the Appeal Court . His argument remains that allowing INEC to reconfigure the BVAS will tamper with the original results recorded in the voting system, thus cleaning every shred of evidence he and his Labour Party have as proof that he won the election, and not the president-elect as declared by the electoral body.