….Faults commission’s motion to reconstruct BVAS machines
By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Tuesday accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of moves to destroy and erase evidence of its rigging of the February 25, 2023 Presidential election.
The PDP, which made the accusation at a press conference addressed by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon Debo Ologunagba in Abuja, has consequently alerted Nigerians and the international community of what it called the “atrocious move” by the electoral body.
The PDP specifically frowned at a motion filed by INEC at the court of Appeal requesting that it (the commission) be allowed to reconfigure the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines with a view to wiping out relevant information that “our Party and candidate require to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Tribunal”.
The party noted with regrets that the action by INEC was intended to frustrate the desire of Nigerians to get redress through the court, describing it as a clear recipe for crisis and a deliberate design by the Commission to derail the democracy and trigger anarchy in the country.
The action by INEC, according to the party, was vexatious, provocative and only points to the impunity and culpability of the Commission with regards to the reported manipulations and alteration of results “to deny our Party and its Candidate their victory at the Presidential election”
The party stressed that the action of INEC further validated the fact that PDP and it’s Presidential Candidate won the February 25, 2023 Presidential election, based on the actual votes cast at the Polling Units.
According to Ologunagba, “we have called you (the media) to alert Nigerians and the International Community of the atrocious move by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to destroy and erase evidence of its intolerable rigging of the February 25, 2023 Presidential election.
“Late yesterday (Monday) at 10: 10 pm, INEC in a desperate move to prevent our Party and Candidate from obtaining necessary evidence as Ordered by the Court, filed a motion requesting that it be allowed to reconfigure the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and wipe out relevant information that our Party and Candidate require to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
“This reprehensible action by INEC to frustrate the desire of Nigerians to get redress through the court is a clear recipe for crisis and a deliberate design by the Commission to derail our democracy and trigger anarchy in the country.
“Nigerians can recall how the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu superintended over the manipulation of the results of the Presidential election and hurriedly announced a winner in spite of widespread outcry and complain over numerous evidence of malpractices and violation of several provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 by INEC and its officials.
“The INEC Chairman bypassed all the steps and procedures provided by the Electoral Act, 2022 for the declaration of results, including to announce and declare only results that were transmitted directly from the Polling Units to the INEC Server/Website and to review the results in the event of disputes and objections as to the correctness and consistency of the collated result.
For emphasis, the PDP cited Section 64 (6) of the Electoral Act which clearly states that;
*(6) Where during collation of results, there is a dispute regarding a collated result or the result of an election from any Polling Unit, the collation officer or returning officer shall use the following to determine the correctness of the disputed result-
*(a) the original of the disputed collated result for each Polling Unit where the election is disputed;
*(b)the smart card reader or other technology device used for accreditation of voters in each polling unit where the election is disputed for the purpose of obtaining accreditation data directly from the smart card reader or technology device
“(c) data of accreditation recorded and transmitted directly from each polling unit where the election is disputed as prescribed under section 47 (2) of this Act
*(d) the votes and result of the election recorded and transmitted directly from each polling unit where the election is disputed, as prescribed under section 60 (4) of this Act.
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