2023 Governorship election postponed: Inec postpone 2023 guber polls to March 18

Di Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) don postpone di govnorship and state house of assembly elections wey bin dey scheduled for Saturday, March 11 by one week to March 18, 2023.

Inec say dem take di decision so dem fit commence di re-configuration of di Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines wey dem use for di February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, to enable their use for di state elections.

BVAS na di new voting device wey dey for cross-checking voters names for di Register of Voters.

E dey authenticate voters wit di use of dia fingerprints or facials. Di BVAS also get camera and di capacity to snap Polling Unit level result and upload am to di INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal so dat citizens go fit view results as election dey end for each Polling Unit.

Dis postponement dey come afta di Presidential Election Petition Court wey sit for di Court of Appeal for Abuja Nigeria capital give di Independent National Electoral Commission di go ahead to reconfigure di Bimodal Voter Accreditation System wey dem use for di presidential election.

Di court for dia unanimous decision by di three-member panel of Justices, rule say if dem stop Inec from reconfiguring di BVAS, e go affect di upcoming Govnorship and State Assembly elections.

Di court dismiss di objections wey di Labour Party, LP, and dia Presidential candidate, Peter Obi bin raise against Inec's move to reconfigure all di BVAS.

According to di court, if dem allow di objections by Obi and im party, e go lead to "tying di hands of di respondent, INEC".

Court also note say Inec inside one affidavit dem file before di court, assure say di accreditation data wey dey inside di BVAS, notin go tamper wit am and e no go loss sake of say dem go store am and fit retrieve am easily from dia accredited back-end server.