Atiku withdraws motion in order to obtain permission to observe BVAS configuration

Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate for president in the most recent election, has withdrawn his request to the court for permission to watch the Independent National Electoral Commission reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines (INEC).

On March 8, the Court of Appeal in Abuja gave the electoral umpire permission to proceed with the reconfiguration of the BVAS used to conduct the presidential election on February 25.
Following its conclusion that the BVAS data on the presidential elections can be safely stored in an accredited backend server, the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh gave INEC the go-ahead to reconfigure the BVAS machines for use in the rescheduled governorship and state House of Assembly elections on March 18.

Atiku and Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party (LP), were allowed to inspect election materials, including the BVAS machines used to conduct the presidential election, thanks to an earlier order from the court that had been modified by the electoral umpire.

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They had based their request on the fact that the governorship and state House of Assembly elections would not take place as originally planned unless the court’s order was changed to allow for the reconfiguration for the governorship election. They had also argued that the same BVAS machines used for the presidential elections would be used for the governorship and state House of Assembly elections.
As a result of the BVAS machines’ reconfiguration, INEC announced shortly after the permission was granted that the governorship and state House of Assembly elections would be held on March 18 instead of March 11.

In the meantime, Atiku and his party, the PDP, asked the appellate court for permission to watch INEC officials reconfigure the BVAS machines in a motion on notice filed on March 13 and designated CA/PEC/13m/2023.

He had also submitted a second motion exparte asking for permission to use an alternative method of serving Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the winner of the presidential election, and the All Progressives Congress (APC), namely by serving the papers on their staff or posting them on their property.

Ifeanyi Iboko, an attorney for Atiku and the PDP, called the appellate court’s attention to a notice of discontinuance filed in connection with the two cases on Wednesday when the case was called.

Iboko clarified that the discontinuation was justified by the fact that recent events had rendered the two motions unnecessary.

The two motions were subsequently dismissed by the appellate court as a result of the respondents’ withdrawal and lack of opposition.

After collating the results from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu declared Tinubu the winner of the presidential election on March 1 because he received the most votes cast.

Tinubu won the election with more than eight million votes, followed by Atiku with almost seven million and Obi with just over six million.
Like Tinubu and Atiku, who each won 12 states, Obi won 11 states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Both Atiku and Obi promised to air their complaints at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which is the court tasked with hearing and ruling on cases pertaining to the conduct of the presidential election, after Tinubu was declared the election’s victor.

Atiku and Obi requested a court order allowing them to inspect the materials used for the February 25 presidential election in separate motions exparte while they have not yet filed their respective petitions.

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Atiku and Obi were given permission to inspect “all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the election for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on February 25, 2023,” according to Justice Ikyegh’s ruling on the exparte, which was delivered on March 3.

Additionally, the court gave them permission to electronically scan and/or make copies of the presidential election ballots and registration forms.

Also allowed by the order is “carrying out digital forensic inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25” presidential election for Atiku and Obi.

However, INEC disagreed with the ruling and petitioned the appellate court to change the ruling on the grounds that granting Atiku and Obi access to its database would reveal voters’ names and the ballots they cast in the presidential election.

Additionally, INEC requested that the court change the order because it might have an impact on how the March 11 governorship and state House of Assembly elections are conducted.