The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (Situation Room) has raised concerns over the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconfigure the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS).

INEC had asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to vary its orders restraining it from tampering with the BVAS machines used for the conduct of the 25 February election.

The court had issued the orders in a ruling where it granted permission to Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) to inspect the sensitive materials used for the election.

According to the electoral commission, the request was predicated on the need to reconfigure the BVAS used in the presidential election before deploying them for the 11 March governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls.

Situation Room said it was concerned about the question of preservation of data collected during the presidential and National Assembly elections.

‘Electoral accountability requires that information collected during elections are preserved for use in the audit and review of the election and for accountability purposes’, it said in a statement.

‘In the light of the disputations that have emerged and the controversy surrounding the 2023 general election, Situation Room is asking INEC to ensure that its records and data related to the election are held safely, and securely to ensure its use for the purposes of scrutiny and accountability’.

It urged INEC to clarify to the public how it intends to ensure that data collected in the BVAS used in the election will be preserved for use in the review and audit of the elections.

Photo source: Situation Room