INEC prays court to vary order on inspection of election materials

.No fewer than 203 persons arrested for electoral offences –IGP

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked the Court of Appeal to vary the ex parte order made in favour of Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), with regards to inspection of materials used for the presidential election.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that the appellate  court had on March 3, granted leave to Atiku Abubakar of the PPD and Mr Peter Obi of  Labour Party to inspect election materials used by INEC to conduct the Feb. 25 presidential election.

The court granted the duo permission following two separate ex parte applications filed by Atiku and Obi, who came second and third respectively in the presidential election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In the  application filed by the commission and sighted by NAN, the commission is asking the court to vary the order to allow it to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

NAN reports that it is the sole prayer in the application of the electoral umpire filed at the court.

No date has however, been fixed for hearing of the application.

A credible source in the commission had told NAN that the application became necessary following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them were issued.

Speaking off camera, the source said that the commission would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the election that would take place in the 36 states of the federation excluding the FCT.

According to the source, considering the number of BVAS required to conduct the election across the states, INEC needs to reconfigure the BVAS used for the Feb. 25 elections and deploy them to polling units for the March 11  elections.

The source said that the  technical team of the commission had to be deployed on time to start the reconfiguration of the devices, which had to be done one by one.

The source said the order was pertinent as not getting it could result to a postponement of the Saturday governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

Meanwhile,No fewer than 203 persons have been arrested by the police in connection with electoral offences during the February 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

The Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, made this known on Monday during a meeting with strategic police managers comprising Deputy Inspectors-General of Police and members of the Force Management Team, Assistant Inspectors-General of Police, Commissioners of Police, and heads of tactical investigative and operational units of the Force in Abuja.

According to the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement issued on Monday, the IGP added that about 185 major incidents were attended to by the police during the elections.

He said 18 firearms of various calibres were recovered from political thugs.

The spokesman said the IGP however emphasized that the cases were at various stages of investigation at the Nigeria Police Electoral Offences Desks.

Usman Alkali Baba was said to have also assured that they investigation would be concluded and processed to the Legal Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission for prosecution.

Speaking on the meeting with strategic police managers, the spokesman explained that it was to “debrief officers posted for election security management duties and appraise the performance of the Nigeria Police Force at the February 25th Presidential and National Assembly Elections, identify gaps, and perfect the action plan for the forthcoming March 11th Elections.”

He said the IGP applauded the high level of resilience, and utmost professionalism displayed by officers and men of the Nigeria Police as well as other security agencies in the course of the election security operations in line with “the Reviewed Standard Operational Guidelines and Rules for Police Officers and Other Security Agents on Electoral Duties which was issued to all officers in the countdown to the election operations.”

He was said to have equally attributed the professionalism of the officers to the various pre-election pieces of training, meticulous planning, massive operational assets procurement and deployment, as well as prioritized welfare.