The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has issued a statement denying allegations of voter data manipulation during the recent gubernatorial election in Kogi state.
INEC has requested that Nigerians disregard claims made by Yakubu Murtala, the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) candidate, who accused the commission of colluding with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to change the data to show an excessive number of votes in certain polling stations across four local government areas.
Mohammed Kudu Haruna, a National Commissioner and Member of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, explained the commission’s position in a statement released on Tuesday.
Haruna stated that INEC has noticed media reports suggesting tampering with accredited voter figures on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal and has deemed these reports false.
Describing the reports as unfounded, Haruna said the most accurate and up-to-date Voters’ Accreditation Data is available in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS, which 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 stated.
According to him, the BVAS is designed to primarily work offline without Internet connectivity, which facilitates faster and seamless authentication and accreditation experience for voters.
“However, when its 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.
“At the close of poll, Presiding Officers are 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 synchronization and which is ongoing, could lead to changes in the accreditation figures as more data flow 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 poll.
“The public should disregard the misleading report and misinformation”, Haruna urged
