The immediate past Akwa-Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Mike Igini, has again reiterated that the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the upcoming Nigeria general elections would consign many politicians to political irrelevance as many of them would be roundly defeated.
He noted that the beauty of the use of BVAS is that it has returned power to the people to determine who governs them as it is designed to put the voters at the centre of the country’s electoral democracy, while the candidates would be at the periphery of the process on the Election Day.
He pointed out that although many Nigerians have raised valid concerns about the technology, the machine will not disappoint.
‘As many of you have come to know, my commitment and votary at all times is about the integrity and credibility of the process and outcome for the society and not about who wins the election, because that should be left for voters to determine. So, let us be clear here. The tribunal did not make any adverse or negative finding against the BVAS per se, but on the propriety of the three reports of the accreditation data and the resultant attempts by people to discredit the BVAS; that is of interest, given that the BVAS will be used in the general election and many Nigerians are worried by what they read on social media that are completely false about BVAS.’
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He went on to further state that;
‘As they gang up to tell lies about the BVAS, we will tell the truth about it. It is the people who are afraid of the BVAS and have been opposed to its use in the forthcoming election that are making uninformed comments to discredit the BVAS. This gross misunderstanding is as a result of the final outcome of the court that returned victory to another person other than the initially declared person. This seems to create doubts and thoughts that the BVAS has issues of fidelity and credibility.
‘However, this notion is wholly and totally incorrect and not true. The integrity of the BVAS is intact; it has no problem. I urge all Nigerians to disregard and reject all such insinuations about this device, which I describe as the new sheriff in our electoral process.’
‘The BVAS is the ultimate primary source of determining any claim of over-voting. Except the BVAS is destroyed completely, there is nothing anyone can do to manipulate it because it’s designed in a way that evidence trail of every effort to tamper with the memory will show that it was tampered with in an effort to circumvent it.
‘It is not easily manipulated or compromised unlike ordinary hard copy of voters register that anyone can just tick or mark as people who were accredited. It is designed to put the voters at the centre of our electoral democracy and the candidates at the periphery of the process on Election Day. Look, many politicians will be retired by this system as many will suffer the dinosaur experience. Electoral victory and salvation now lies in the hands of the people through their ballots on Election Day. This is the reality of the usefulness of the BVAS that has returned power to the people to determine who governs them.’
Africa Today News, New York reports that many Nigerians have raised several concerns about the efficiency of the BVAS machine ahead of elections.