The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has slammed political parties intruding into its affairs to dictate on how it should operate on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS.
Mr Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, made this known during on Sunday evening.
Okoye explained that the commission had been created to serve as a regulator for political parties and not the other way round.
Recalling that the Labour Party said the commission deliberately came up with the idea of reconfiguring BVAS after its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, sought to examine the election materials.
The party also faulted the commission’s claim of backing up the data retrieved from the BVAS without the presence of independent witnesses and representatives of political parties.
Recalling also, that the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted the INEC’s request to reconfigure the BVAS that was used for the presidential poll.
Speaking on the matter, Okoye maintained that the request by the LP to monitor the commission’s process of reconfiguring and backing up results on its BVAS devices would not be granted.
He also added that parties and individuals planning to register their grievances through peaceful protest over the conduct of February 25, 2023 presidential poll will be welcome at the commission’s headquarters.
He added that “the commission will not prevent any individual or group of individuals, any political party or association not to protest because the commission is a public trust and a public institution and we cannot prevent anybody from coming to protest”.
