INEC Blocking Access to BVAS Machine, Says Imo LP

The Imo State Chapter of the Labour Party today raised the alarm that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in the state was disobeying a court order for it to inspect the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS used in the conduct of the November 11 governorship election.

The LP chairman in the state, Callistus Ihejiagwa, who briefed journalists in Owerri, the state capital, said the Election Petition Tribunal in Owerri had on November 26 ordered INEC to allow his party access to the BVAS machine used for the conduct of the election.

He said contrary to the court order which empowered the LP to carry out a forensic inspection of the BVAS machine, the electoral umpire had frustrated the process.

He said the forensic inspection of the election materials including the BVAS is contained in the order of the tribunal.

According to him, INEC had on Wednesday, denied availability of the BVAS for inspection, insisting that only the commission’s headquarters reserved the right to grant access to the BVAS for inspection.

He said that the commission, however, made available only 65 out of over 5,000 BVAS machines for inspection but denied the LP’s team of forensic experts access to the machines.

He wondered why INEC would “deliberately frustrate the process of litigation “ in an election where it was only an umpire.

Previously, INEC’s Head of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs Emmanuella Ben-Opara had, on Tuesday, confirmed that the materials requested for inspection were all ready and waiting to be inspected.