The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says that some politicians in the country are plotting to manipulate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of next month’s elections.
Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, stated this when he featured on Channels Television’s programme, Sunrise Daily, on Tuesday.
His remarks follow the recent ruling by the Osun State governorship election petitions tribunal that nullified governor Ademola Adeleke’s victory in the July 16, 2022 election over excessive voting.
He said: “Some of these fears are not valid. People are just throwing in issues into the fray to make sure that we disclose to them the complete and entire functionality of the BVAS.
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“There are some politicians who want us to open the brain of the BVAS [machine] so they can see inside the BVAS [machine], to see how it functions and for them to also see whether there’s a possibility for them to clone it or manipulate it and the commission will not do that.
“Democracy can only be protected by a vigilant people and the law has given the political parties the power and the right to deploy their polling agents to all the polling units in Nigeria and to all the collation centres.”
The INEC spokesman further dispersed the fears of Nigerians on the BVAS, saying the technology is foolproof and cannot be subjected to external manipulations.
“Our BVAS is a very robust gadget – a very robust instrument, and we have faith in it. We believe it is the ultimate arbiter in terms of those who want to manipulate the process.
“I think that Nigerians should have faith in the BVAS. It is robust and will be a game-changer in the 2023 general elections,” Okoye added.
