A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Tuesday, called on the Appeal Court to reject a request by the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, seeking an order of court to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) machines.
The court had issued the orders in the ruling it gave on Friday granting permission to Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to inspect the sensitive materials used for the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.
Yakubu in his motion before the court said the order needed variation to enable it deploy the machines for the Saturday, March 11, 2023 Governorship and State House of Assembly elections.
But, Frank in a statement in Abuja, urged the Justices of the Appeal Court not to vary its orders nor grant INEC’s request to reconfigure the BIVAS machines.
He claimed that the request was a ploy by INEC to tamper with evidence against the substantive order of the court that barred the Commission from tampering with the BIVAS and other sensitive election materials yet to be inspected by Atiku and Obi.
He insisted that if the request of INEC is approved by the Court, then all necessary data needed to prove the massive rigging in the justconcluded presidential election would be lost as they would fraudulently and deliberately be deleted by the electoral umpire.
Frank, who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and Middle East, said: “I hereby urge the Appeal Court not to vary its orders nor accede to the request of INEC to reconfigure the BIVAS machines.
“The request of INEC in all its ramifications is anti-people, ungodly, preposterous, jejune and beyond imagination.
“It is a poly by INEC to hide and bury germane evidence that would enable the various opposition parties to prove their election petition cases before the courts.
“The Appeal Court must realise that the outcome of this case would show whether it is on the side of the suffering and impoverished Nigerians or against them.
“This is a man who told the whole world that INEC was ready for the two elections and that the BIVAS was already configured for the two election, why this sudden change of mind and request for reconfiguration if not to destroy key evidence and hide the evil the commission perpetrated during the Presidential and National Assembly election forever?
“The Appeal Court justices should know that the outcome of the last Presidential election is most unfortunate and painful and Nigerians are still trying heal.
“Therefore, Nigerians believe they will do substantial justice by rejecting the request of INEC to tamper with the BIVAS.
“The court must not by any means add salt to the injury already inflicted on the people by INEC through a compromised election and manipulated results.
“We insist that there is absolutely no need for the Court of Appeal to vary its orders nor grant the request of INEC until after the BIVAS and other sensitive election materials used for the Presidential election have been digitally and forensically inspected by the aggrieved parties as already ordered by court.”
According to the Bayelsa-born political activist, “if there is anything that needs reconfiguration, it is Yakubu’s brain and the INEC he presides over that conducted the worst election in the history of Nigeria and not the BIVAS machines used for the last election which are yet to be inspected by aggrieved political parties as ordered by the Appeal Court.”
