The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has allayed fears amongst the electorates over possible sabotage of the electoral process as the polls draw nigh.
INEC’s national commissioner for information, Festus Okoye, on Monday, revealed that criminals involved in the theft of Voter Identification Numbers (VIN) are engaging in a futile venture.
Okoye who said this during Arise Television “Morning Show”, clarified that the data of every registered voter was domiciled in the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and not in the Permanent Voters Card.
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He said, “Those who are harvesting VINs of registered voters are doing that in futility. Why are they harvesting and buying off VINs when those VINs were published in our local government areas and in our registration areas when we displayed the voters registers for claims and objections. Those VINs are there.
“We have made it very clear that this Commission will deploy BVAS for voters’ identification and authentication and the data of every registered voter in Nigeria per polling unit is domiciled in BVAS and not in the PVCs.
“The only thing the Presiding Officer will do on election day is to look at the last six digits of your PVC and use it to bring out your VIN for the purpose of calling up your data from the BVAS. Those buying PVCs and harvesting VINs can only engage in voter oppression.
“They can only prevent the voter from going to the polling unit on election day but in terms of carrying the PVC of someone else to give another person for voting, I can assure you that it is next to impossible.”
