The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is attempting to block the party from accessing evidence from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) by seeking a court order. According to the PDP, the order would reconfigure the BVAS, depriving the party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, of the data needed to prosecute its case at the presidential election tribunal.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday night at the party’s headquarters in Abuja, National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba said that “late on Monday at 10:10 p.m., INEC, in a move to prevent our party and candidate from obtaining necessary evidence as ordered by the court, filed a motion requesting permission to reconfigure the BVAS machines and wipe off the relevant information we require to prosecute our case at the presidential election tribunal.” He described INEC’s action as reprehensible, intended to frustrate Nigerians’ desire for judicial redress, and warned that it “is a clear recipe for crisis and a deliberate design by the commission to derail our democracy and trigger anarchy in the country.”
INEC had announced the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the president‑elect following the February 25, 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections, results that the PDP rejected. The PDP spokesperson accused INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu of supervising the alleged manipulation of the presidential results and of hastily declaring a winner despite widespread outcry and evidence of electoral malpractice and violations of the Electoral Act 2022. He argued that the chairman bypassed the procedures mandated by the Act, which require that only results transmitted directly from polling units to the INEC server/website be announced, and that any disputes or objections be reviewed before declaration.
Instead of adhering to the law, the PDP alleges, the INEC chairman “brazenly announced and declared results that were not transmitted directly from the polling units to INEC’s server/website while ignoring the objections and complaints raised during collation,” in clear disregard of the Electoral Act. In response, the PDP, as a law‑abiding party, obtained a court order directing INEC to grant the party and its candidate unrestricted access to conduct a forensic examination of ballot papers, data forms, BVAS devices, card readers, and any other material necessary for redress at the Election Tribunal.
Panicked by the order, INEC rushed to court and filed a motion seeking permission to reconfigure the BVAS devices, effectively erasing the stored accreditation data for all voters accredited on February 25, 2023 for the presidential, senatorial, and House of Representatives elections. Ologunagba noted that INEC’s own motion admitted this fact. He condemned the move as vexatious and provocative, highlighting the commission’s impunity and culpability in the alleged manipulation and alteration of results to deny the PDP and its candidate their victory.
The PDP maintains that the party and its presidential candidate won the February 25, 2023 election based on the actual votes cast at the polling units. Ologunagba questioned, “If INEC has nothing to hide, why was it in a hurry to declare manipulated results without recourse to the provisions of the Electoral Act and without consideration of the disputes, objections and complaints raised by parties during the collation process?” He reiterated the party’s commitment to continue pursuing the matter in accordance with the law.
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