The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has raised concern over the possible cloning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), saying some politicians were already making attempt to access its hardware.
Festus Okoye, Chairman, INEC Information and Voter Education Committee, addressed concerns about over-voting and BVAS compromise during a live appearance on Channels Television’s program on Tuesday, which BizWatch Nigeria monitored.
Okoye’s remarks follow the recent Osun State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal decision, which invalidated Governor Ademola Adeleke’s election due to excessive voting.’
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Okoye stated that stakeholders are given access to monitor the entire electoral process to ensure that no foreign material is put into the ballot boxes on election day, which would result in over-voting.
“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,” the INEC official said.
