The Independent National Electoral Commission says it will approach the Appeal Court on Monday for an order to allow it to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11 elections.

On Sunday, a credible source in the commission revealed that the order was significant following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection was conducted and certified true copies of them issued.

The source, who requested anonymity, said INEC would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the elections that would take place on Saturday.

“The commission’s legal department is actually preparing an application to be filled in the court on Monday to seek an order for it to reconfigure its BVAS for Saturday governorship and state houses of assembly elections,” the source said.

The source explained that considering the number of BVAS required to conduct the election across states, INEC needed to reconfigure the BVAS used for the March 25 elections and deploy them to polling units for the Saturday election.

The source added that INEC technical team have to be deployed on time to commence the re-configuration of the device, which has to be done one by one.

The source explained that the order was important if the Saturday governorship and state parliamentary elections must hold as scheduled, otherwise the postponement of the election became inevitable.

On Friday, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal granted leave to the presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC for the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

A panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the order after it heard two separate ex parte applications the two aggrieved presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.

Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents it used for the presidential election to aid their petitions against the outcome of the presidential election.

“An order granting the applicants’ permission to do electronic scanning and make photocopies of voter’s registration, ballot papers used in the conduct of the election for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on the February 25,” said the court document.

“An order granting leave to the applicants to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25 election for the Office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The plaintiffs also sought an order restraining INEC “from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued.”

The court, in its consideration, ordered INEC to allow the applicants to inspect all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the presidential election.

The court permitted the appellants to do electronic scanning and or make photocopies of the voter’s registration and ballot papers used in the presidential election.

“That leave is hereby granted to the applicants to carry out digital forensic inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25, 2023 Election for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the court had ordered.

Due to potential cyber security risks, the European Commission has prohibited its employees from owning or using TikTok, a social media site owned by the Chinese company Bytedance.

“The measure aims to protect the commission against cybersecurity threats and actions, which may be exploited for cyberattacks,” The New York Times quoted EU spokesperson Sonya Gospodinova as saying.

The Chinese app will no longer be allowed on official devices or any personal devices that include work-related data and applications starting on March 15, according to an email sent to EU employees and obtained by The Times.

However, the commission emphasised that the rule was only a temporary measure necessary to address growing worries about cyber security threats, particularly in light of the escalating rumours that Chinese authorities may be spying on the activities of TikTok users.

But, TikTok has denied allegations that it gives the Chinese government access to users’ personal information.

“We believe this suspension is wrong and based on fundamental misconceptions,” TikTok said in response to the restriction.

The Finnish Police has reportedly arrested the pro-Biafran separatist agitator, Simon Ekpa, over his threats of no elections in Nigeria.

Ekpa had threatened that any person in the South-Eastern Part of the Nigeria who tried to participate or vote in the 2023 elections scheduled to hold on Saturday February 25 would be ruthlessly dealt with.

Ekpa was reportedly picked up from his apartment in the Lahti region of Finland by officers from the Finnish Central Criminal Police on Thursday morning.

The man convicted of fatally shooting rapper Nipsey Hussle was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday, Feb. 22.

Eric Holder was convicted of first-degree murder in July for the March 31, 2019, killing of Hussle in a parking lot outside the rapper’s South Los Angeles apparel shop. 

He was 33. Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke handed down the sentence Wednesday after hearing from one of Hussle’s friends and listening to a letter from Holder’s father.

Holder’s sentencing hearing had been postponed several times, including most recently Nov. 3.

The sentencing has been delayed in part so defense attorney Aaron Jansen could argue to reduce Holder’s conviction to manslaughter or second-degree murder, which the judge rejected in December.

Holder was also found guilty of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter after two other people were injured in the shooting.

Hussle, who was born Ermias Asghedom, had grown up with Holder, and both were members of the same gang, the Rollin’ 60s.

Prosecutors argued that Holder was upset over accusations that he was a snitch and that it was premeditated when he approached Hussle outside his shop, The Marathon, and opened fire.

Hussle was struck at least 10 times. Afterward, Holder kicked him in the head and fled, Deputy District Attorney John McKinney told jurors.

Hussle was a father-of-two.

Dozens of enraged customers in Lebanon have taken matters into their own hands and attacked several banks in the country’s capital city of Beirut on Thursday, burning and protesting over the government-sanctioned withdrawal limit on citizens’ accounts since three years ago.

Since 2019, banks in Lebanon have imposed a restriction on the withdrawals of U.S. dollars, and Lebanese pounds after the country’s economy collapsed, and the country’s currency has lost 97 per cent of its value thus far.

To save the country’s total ruin, banks brought the withdrawal limit into effect in a move that was not backed by the law, leaving depositors to seek access to their funds through lawsuits, and some have taken the situation to the extent of robbing banks with guns to withdraw from their accounts.

According to VOA, nothing less than six banks were attacked on Thursday after the Lebanese pound recorded its lowest value, a spokesperson for Depositors Outcry, a lobby group representing depositors with money stuck in the country’s banking sector, said.

In the Badaro neighbourhood, a bank was set on fire before firefighters swooped in to quench it as riot police took positions around the area, holding their shields.

The presidency said they are in the process of working on a financial remedy for the crisis while the country has thus failed to put together a reform needed to secure International Monetary Fund bailout funds for close to a year now.

Following the death of al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, his heir apparent Saif al-Adel is now commanding the group out of Iran, a new report from the United Nations says.

Based on intelligence from member states, the report said al-Qaida’s new de facto leader could not be announced for two reasons.

Mr Al-Adel’s leadership “cannot be declared because of al-Qaida’s sensitivity to Afghan Taliban concerns not to acknowledge the death of al-Zawahiri in Kabul and [Al-Adel’s] presence in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the report stated.

“His location raises questions that have a bearing on al-Qaida’s ambitions to assert leadership of a global movement in the face of challenges,” including from its rival, the Islamic State (IS) terror group,” added the report.

Mr Al-Adel was part of a team that provided military and intelligence training to fighters in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan beginning in the early 1990s.

He also assisted in training members of al-Egyptian Qaida’s affiliate, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and Somalis who fought U.S. forces in Mogadishu from 1992 to 1994.

In 1998, the United States indicted Mr al-Adel for his role in planning the deadly bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, which killed 224 people and injured thousands more.

He is also a long-serving member of al-senior Qaida’s leadership council, the Majlis al-Shura, and a senior member of the group’s Hittin Committee, which oversees al-Qaida’s operations.