INEC To Rule On Postponing Governorship Election This Night – Sources

There are insinuations that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) might postpone the governorship and state assembly elections scheduled for the 11th of February, 2023.

According to TheCable, sources have it that INEC is expected to decide on shifting the electoral process at a meeting of its national commissioner on Wednesday night.

The commission since the conclusion of the presidential and national assembly elections has been in court over the application seeking to extract data embedded in the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) and inspect other election materials.

Recall that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi and the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar had filed similar applications on the matter before the court of appeal.

They equally applied to obtain the certified true copy (CTC) of all the data in the BVAS.

INEC noted that granting the request would affect its preparations for the forthcoming elections.

The counsel to INEC, Tanimu Inuwa asked the court to vary the orders which permitted Obi and Atiku to inspect all the sensitive materials used in the conduct of the presidential election.

The court on Wednesday failed to grant the request of the electoral body, saying the commission failed to specify which of the orders it wished to vary.

The court also emphasised that it never granted Obi and LP permission to access the database of INEC as misconceived by the electoral body.

It clarified that what was granted was an order giving Obi and LP permission to do electronic scanning and/or make photocopies of voter registration, and ballot papers used in the conduct of the election.

The court, however, granted INEC the request to reconfigure the BVAS ahead of the governorship election.