*Says SDP’s allegations over reconfiguring BVAS untrue
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that there will be no glitches in the upload of results for the Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi State governorship elections on the Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
This is just as the commission described the allegations made by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that its officials were allegedly reconfiguring Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the November 11 governorship election in Kogi State as untrue.
Recall that the upload of results was a major issue in the 2023 elections, which INEC attributed to technical glitches.
But speaking on a live television interview at the weekend, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said there would be no glitches in the off-cycle elections in three states.
His words: “We have been using the IReV for all governorship elections, but it (2023 general election) was the first time we deployed it for the general election setting. Well, we had a glitch for some hours, and we fixed it. But I can assure you that this time around we are not going to have glitches.
“I can affirm that those technical issues have been resolved. Last week, we undertook the mock accreditation, and one of the reasons we did that was to test run these technology gadgets we were going to use, and it was successful,” he said.
Oyekanmi also stated that there could be technology downtime at any point, but noted that the body has learnt lessons from the conduct of the 2023 general election.
“Technology can throw up challenges, but by and large, we have learned our lessons from the 2023 general election.”
He also clarified that what INEC does with the IRev portal is uploading and not transmission of results.
“We are not transmitting; we are uploading,” he said, noting that there are differences between transmitting and uploading.
“All we are doing is taking a picture of the polling unit results and uploading the same to the portal.”
Meanwhile, the commission has described the allegations made by the SDP that its officials were allegedly reconfiguring BVAS ahead of the November 11 governorship election in Kogi State as untrue.
The Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Oyekanmi, in a statement issued yesterday said the configuration of BVAS is done simultaneously and exclusively in the commission’s offices in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states by teams deployed from the national headquarters, Abuja.
He, therefore, urged the public to disregard the story as fake news, while also appealing to political parties to desist from engaging in malicious rumour mongering of this nature.
Oyekanmi said: “The attention of the commission has been drawn to a statement signed by ID Ijele, Director of New Media of the SDP governorship campaign team in Kogi State.
“The statement alleged that three staff of INEC are right now maliciously reconfiguring the BVAS machines in the Government House, Lokoja, with the intention of manipulating the forthcoming governorship election in a part of the State in favour of a candidate.
“The story is untrue. The three persons mentioned are not associated with the configuration of the BVAS machines and not even in Kogi State at the moment. Mr. Nicholas Ocholi is on his duty post in our Ondo State office in Akure. Ibrahim Egbunu is attending to a very close family member hospitalised in Abuja. Mohammed Adara retired last year and is no longer a staff of the commission.
“The configuration of BVAS is done simultaneously and exclusively in our offices in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States professionally and strictly handled by teams deployed from the national HQ, Abuja.”
