By Ogochukwu Isioma
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), has come to stay as a legal instrument for the accreditation and transmission of election results in Nigeria, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, has said.
Atiku made the declaration in his response, through a press statement by his media office, to the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the victory of Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State.
METROWATCHXTRA.COM reports that a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Emmanuel Agim had earlier on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by former governor Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC), challenging the outcome of the election.
The Supreme Court held that the former governor failed to prove his allegation of over-voting in the election, and upheld the Appeal Court’s judgment which upheld the election of Adeleke as the state governor.
Atiku, who congratulated the people of Osun State for the affirmation of their collective mandate given to Governor Adeleke, said that the introduction of technology in the conduct of elections in Nigeria is a progress that cannot be reversed.
“We are all witnesses to the copoius references to the BVAS technology in coming up with this judgement,” he said.
“The law governing our elections has truly brought power to the people, and those power mongering politicians who believe that they can freely subvert the inherent power of democracy now have their hopes dashed,” Atiku added.
The PDP presidential candidate urged Nigerians to take keen interest in the growth and development of democracy in the country, saying: “we must not put the laws in our hands but remain vigilant because, as the saying goes, ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
