BVAS: Labour Party Sets To Embark on Nationwide Protest At INEC Offices

The Labour Party (LP) has threatened to protest at the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nationwide over the Commission’s refusal to allow the party to inspect materials used for the presidential election of February 25th, 2023.

This is sequel to the alleged refusal of the Commission to grant the Labour Party access to the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System BVAS consequent to the rejection of the outcome of the Presidential election by some political parties including the People’s Democratic Party PDP, Labour Party, among others.

Consequently, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi had sought an order from the Court of Appeal to prevent INEC from reconfiguring the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). But the court gave the Commission permission to reconfigure it and asked that Obi be given access to inspect the materials.

Meanwhile, days after the ruling, the LP Presidential Campaign Council (LP-PCC) spokesman Dr. Yunusa Tanko has raised alarm over the refusal of the electoral umpire to allow the party inspects electoral materials as ordered by the court.

“As we speak INEC has chosen to obey the court order given to it to reconfigure the BVAS machine, which they are doing right now and ignoring the order granted to us to inspect electoral materials,” he said in the statement dated March 10, 2023.

“We, therefore, call on the general public to note the level of lawlessness and brazen disobedience to a lawful order of a court by an important statutory agency such as INEC, which is a well-calculated attempt to undermine and frustrate the presentation of the Petition by the Labour Party and its Presidential candidate before the tribunal in good time.

“We, therefore, want to state that we will not fail to call our supporters to march to INEC offices nationwide in a non-violent protest which is allowed by law. This is to curtail the flagrant disobedience to court orders by INEC.”


The statement read in full:
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with greatest impunity has refused, neglected, and failed to obey the Order of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja made on the 03rd day of March 2023, hosting it to grant t, the Labour Party and its presidential candidate H.E. Peter Gregory Obi leave to apply and receive from INEC, certified true copies of materials used in the presidential election held on 25th February 2023.

It will be recalled that the aforesaid Order of the presidential election petition tribunal was duly served on INEC on the 3rd of March 2023 despite the fact that they were present and represented at the tribunal when the Order was made.

Not minding the service of the said Order on INEC, and even though the 6th day of March 2023 and delivered on the same date at the INEC Headquarters Abuja, the electoral umpire has continued to ignore and or disobey the valid Order of such magnitude till NOW.

It should be noted that in a democracy like ours, rule of law must triumph not only in our legal system but also in our body polity as a whole. Parties to litigation like in the instant case must accept and obey every order of a court in good faith and no party should be seen to employ self-help to disparage or disrespect an order of a court which if not checked and curtailed could possibly undermine our democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism.

The action of INEC under reference also constitutes for all intent and purposes, an act of judicial insubordination and willful refusal to comply with the order of the court.

As we speak INEC has chosen to obey the court order given to it to reconfigure the BIVAS machine, which they doing right now and ignoring the order granted to us to inspect electoral materials.

We, therefore, call on the general public to note the level of lawlessness and brazen disobedience to a lawful order of a court by an important statutory agency such as INEC, which is a well-calculated attempt to undermine and frustrate the presentation of the Petition by the Labour Party and its Presidential candidate before the tribunal in good time.

We, therefore, want to state that we will not fail to call our supporters to march to INEC offices nationwide in a non-violent protest which is allowed by law. This is to curtail the flagrant disobedience to court orders by INEC

Thank you

Dr . Yunusa Tanko
Chief Spokesman
LP-PCC

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