Edo Election Tribunal: INEC submits additional BVAS machines as PDP, Ighodalo close case
  • February 3, 2025
  • Favour Anetor
  • 0

The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) on Monday tendered additional BVAS machines used in the last Edo State governorship election to the Edo Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja amid loud protests from lawyers to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the September 21, 2024 governorship election, Governor Monday Okpebholo.

The submission of additional BVAS machines by INEC follows an earlier submission made on Thursday after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) obtained a subpoena compelling INEC, which had initially declined to release the machines voluntarily.

The PDP’s contention at the Edo Election Tribunal is that the election that produced Governor Okpebholo was marred by over-voting, arguing that results announced by INEC exceeded the number of accredited voters in several locations.

The BVAS data are expected to provide crucial insight into the accreditation process, with preliminary indications suggesting discrepancies between voter accreditation figures and final results declared in multiple polling units.

Following the admission of the BVAS machines by the Tribunal on Monday, the PDP and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, officially closed their case, confident that with all the evidence submitted they have all they need to prove their case.

Earlier at the beginning of proceedings, lead counsel to the petitioners, Ken Mozia, SAN, informed the Tribunal that, in response to their application asking INEC to produce the BVAS machines used in 133 polling units during the election as contained in their schedule, 148 were produced last week as the electoral body failed to produce BVAS machines for five polling units indicated in the schedule.

“The 148 produced have been tendered and accepted into the records of the court. The 1st respondent (INEC) has brought the remaining five BVAS machines and they want the five BVAS machines presented by a Senior Technical Officer in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Department of INEC, Anthony Itodo, to be tendered before the Tribunal,” he said.

Despite the objection by the counsel to the respondents, the chairman of the three-member Edo Election Tribunal, Wilfred Kpochi, admitted the BVAS machines, saying the Tribunal would wait to hear the reasons for the counsel’s objection.

Mozia thereafter announced that the petitioners were closing their case as they await the witness list of the respondents for subsequent proceedings.

Counsel for INEC, APC and Gov. Okpebholo, however, asked the Tribunal to give them more time to prepare their own case. They are expected to scrutinise the evidence closely as they prepare their defence.

The petitioners did not object to the request for time and the Tribunal adjourned proceedings in the petition till February 5, 2025.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *