INEC had insisted that reconfiguration of the BVAS was necessary since they would be deployed for the coming elections.
It maintained that by restraining it from purging the BVAS through reconfiguration, it would be difficult for it to proceed with the scheduled elections.
The electoral body had urged the court to refuse the request by Obi and LP to be allowed to extract data embedded in the BVAS, “which represent the actual results from Polling Units”.
“My lords, this is to ensure that the evidence is preserved before the BVAS are reconfigured by INEC. This is because if they are wiped out, it will affect the substance of our case”, Obi’s lead counsel, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, submitted.

However, opposing the application, INEC insisted that granting the request would affect its preparations for the governorship and State Assembly elections.
It told the  Justice Joseph Ikyegh-led panel that there were a total of 176, 000 BVAS deployed to polling units during the presidential election.
“Each polling unit has its own particular BVAS machine which we need to configure for the forthcoming elections. 
“It will be very difficult for us, within the period, to reconfigure the 176, 000 BVAS.  We have already stated in our affidavit that no information in the BVAS will be lost as we will transfer all the data in the BVAS to our back-end server.
“We need the BVAS configured. So, granting this application will be a clog in the process and may delay the conduct of the elections”, INEC’s lead lawyer, Tanimu Inuwa, SAN, pleaded

Other Justices on the panel of the appellate court that heard all the applications were Justices Haruna Simon Tsammani and James Gambo Abundaga.

Reacting to the ruling last night, the Director General of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council,  Akin Osuntokun, said the electoral umpire could not be trusted.
Osuntokun said “How they are going to do it is something we will wait and see. We only hope because we don’t expect anything good from them and having said that, a lot of money was expended on getting this new technology.
“When they were getting this new technology, they should have known in advance that after the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections, the records there will be needed in court, so they do not find themselves in a situation like this.

If you contract a technology that you are using for an election like this, you know you will need it for the presidential election and to conduct the governorship election, you will need to reconfigure it.
“Why didn’t they (INEC) look for a way out in which the integrity of the figures can still be protected? But as I said, I don’t expect anything good from these people (INEC) and they are just confirming it.
“When things are straightforward, they look for a way to pervert it. I don’t expect anything good from them.”