Compel INEC To Grant Access To BVAS – Achonu

By Georgina Humphrey

The governorship candidate of the Labour party in the just concluded November election in Imo state, Senator Athan Achonu has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene and compell INEC to allow him inspect the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System, BIVAS.

Senator Achonu made the call while briefing newsmen in Abuja.

He said that President Tinubu’s antecedent as one who fought for democracy is the only thing sustaining his desire to seek justice at the tribunal.

“What gives me confidence is that Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu was on the streets for June 12, he made us believe that he was a democrat fighting for justice, freedom of choice and equal opportunity”.

He stressed that After 19 days of the conduct of the governorship election in Imo State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is frustrating every attempt to inspect the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (B-VAS) used during the conduct of the exercise.

Sen. Achononu wondered why the electoral empire is foot dragging in allowing him access to the materials knowing fully well that he has limited time to tender his evidence before the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

The former lawmaker who claimed that he won the election, said that the delay in releasing the BVAS for inspection may be part of the plans by the ruling party to force him to file his petitions out of time and get his matter struck out on technical grounds.

“What is happening right now is that we went to the Tribunal, got an order for us to be allowed to inspect the BVAS, INEC has refused to let us inspect the BVAS up till now. Lawyers and experts were hired at a very huge cost, per day N30 million, they are not allowing us to inspect it despite a court order”.

Sen. Achonu said that the INEC Chairman during a stakeholders meeting pledged that election results collation will start from wards to the local governments before the state but lamented that collation never took place in any ward.

He accused INEC of colluding with the ruling party in the state to announce results that were not signed even when party agents were raising objections as to the credibility of those results.

The LP candidate however expressed hope that he will get justice in the judiciary.

“I still have belief and faith in the survival of this country. I still claim that there are some men of integrity within the judiciary. These are men who hold the power of life and death over us. These are men who are supposed to live above reproach. There must be one or two of them, I hope I come across one of them in my case” he stressed.

“I still believe in this country no matter what anybody says. Something will happen. Yes, I have come across a lot of men of integrity in this country, very few of them. I want to think that this will be the first test case of the judiciary, let’s see what happens” he added.

The former Presidential Candidate of the party, Peter Obi had also on Monday lamented that months after the Supreme Court delivered judgement on the Presidential election, he is yet to get a Certified True Copy (CTC) after he requested and made payment for it.

Edited By Grace Namiji