By Adadainfo
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Olisa Agbakoba, says he has found out that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, could be jettisoned as evidence if the Independent National Electoral Commission decides to present hard copies of election results.
Chief Agbakoba, former president of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, opined that BVAS ‘is just an election tool’, and ‘has changed nothing’.
He spoke Wednesday during the Arise Television’s Morning Show.
In his words, “If you were to ask my view, and I have been in the election petition for a long time, this is one of the worst elections ever conducted. I say it for a number of reasons.
“First, if you listen to the chairman of the election management body, the INEC, he made clear to us, ad nauseam, that BVAS is the magic. And it turns out that BVAS wasn’t the magic.
“And I had the unfortunate displeasure of actually checking what exactly is BVAS in the law, and I was shocked that actually BVAS is not what we thought was represented to us by the National Assembly in the enactment of the electoral act 2023.
“BVAS is no more than a tool to accredit a voter. I suspect, without saying that’s the way to go, I suspect BVAS is not that important in the petition as we think because the Osun Court of Appeal decision did not accept the argument by the appellant that the BVAS is the magic that determines over voting.
“The court wanted to see a link to the original old ballot papers. In other words, the presidential Polling Units become important and I was taken aback by that. I found out when I studied it that INEC has legal authority to present results either normal paper way or the BVAS. So there’s no real change.”
