The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in a statement by its National Commissioner and member of, the Information and Voter Education Committee, Alhaji Mohammed Haruna in Abuja, said that the November 11 governorship election held in Kogi was free, fair and credible, faulting claims that it tampered with the accredited figures of voters in the election.
The statement reads, “The attention of INEC has been drawn to some media reports alleging it tampered with the accredited figures of voters in Kogi governorship election results uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
“However, these reports are unfounded.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the most accurate and up-to-date voters’ accreditation data is available in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
“BVAS is used for the authentication and accreditation of registered voters at various polling units on election day. It automatically retains the accreditation data of all voters,” he said.
Haruna, however, maintained that BVAS was designed to primarily work offline without Internet connectivity, which facilitates faster and seamless authentication and accreditation experience for voters.
“When the BVAS application is active or in use, depending on the strength of its connection to the Internet, the BVAS automatically exports the accreditation data to the Accreditation Backend System (ABS).
“This exportation of data does not happen when the device’s application is inactive or when the internet connectivity is poor.
“The same experience applies to a situation where more than one BVAS gadget is used at a polling unit with more than 1,250 registered voters.
“This could be compared to a situation when poor network services delay the delivery of an SMS sent from one individual to another through a mobile phone, “ he said.
Haruna said that at the close of the poll, presiding officers were expected to press the data exportation button on the BVAS to ensure that all the accreditation data are exported to the ABS.
“This process referred to as ongoing synchronization, could lead to changes in the accreditation figures as more data flows in to update the existing figures.
“This is the basis for the caveat provided on the IReV portal, regarding the accreditation figures. The accreditation data cannot be changed on the BVAS after the close of the poll.
“The public should disregard the misleading report and misinformation,” he said.
The Informant247 had on November 12, reported how Prof. Johnson Urama, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Returning Officer and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nnsuka declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Usman Ododo as the winner of Saturday’s Governorship election in Kogi State.
Prof. Urama, while announcing at the INEC state collation centre in Lokoja, the state capital, on Sunday night, said Ododo polled 446,237 to defeat his closest rival, Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who polled 259,052 votes.
Meanwhile, Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came third after scoring 46,362 votes and Hon. Leke Abejide of the African Democratic Party (ADP) got 21,819 votes to come fourth.
He said, “Ahmed Ododo having certified the requirements of the law is hereby declared winner and returned elected,” he said.
He also said the number of cancelled votes in the areas where the election did not hold was 16, 247 and could not substantially affect the outcome of the result.
