The Chairman of the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, declared that the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), has successfully solved the protracted problem of figuring out theft in Nigeria’s elections.
The chairman made the declaration whereas talking on the 2025 Digital Nigeria Worldwide Convention and Exhibitions organised by the Nationwide Info Expertise Growth Company (NITDA) in Abuja.
In an announcement by his chief press secretary, Dayo Oketola, Amupitan mentioned the BVAS is a milestone within the nation’s democratic historical past, having grow to be a ‘foolproof mechanism’ for verification.
In his keynote tackle, the INEC chairman, who was represented by Mrs Could Agbamuche-Mbu, a nationwide commissioner, said that the period of a number of voting and id fraud is over.
“The BVAS machine has grow to be our frontline defence in opposition to id fraud, making certain that solely the rightful, eligible voter will be accredited on the polling unit.
“With the biometric safeguards now in place, voter impersonation has been successfully eradicated from our electoral system,” he mentioned.
In line with the INEC boss, the 6,879 BVAS units configured and deployed for the Anambra polls recorded a extremely commendable efficiency, including that over 99% of polling unit outcomes have been uploaded to the INEC Outcome Viewing (IReV) portal on Election Day itself.
“These outcomes verify that the deployment of BVAS and IReV is now not experimental however an entrenched a part of Nigeria’s electoral structure. The determine introduced on the polling items is identical determine seen to the general public. Expertise has safeguarded the vote,” the 2004 College of Iowa Fulbright visiting scholar informed the gathering.
The INEC boss, reminded the viewers that earlier applied sciences, whereas modern, lacked the ‘enamel’ of the legislation, leaving the Fee weak to technicalities in election tribunals. Nonetheless, that state of affairs shifted with the Electoral Act 2022.
He highlighted Part 47(2) because the watershed provision that reworked digital units from mere administrative tips into “statutorily protected pillars” of the electoral system.
“This legislative basis ensures that our digital instruments have each operational and authorized legitimacy. It has strengthened public belief and enabled the Fee to innovate with confidence,” he defined.
Amupitan admitted that whereas voter impersonation and a number of voting had been largely tackled with BVAS, connectivity remained a logistical headache.
He acknowledged that whereas the Fee’s regular deployment of expertise has boosted credibility, it’s in no way a cure-all, saying the nation’s uneven telecommunications panorama as a cussed impediment.
“With 176,846 polling items tucked into swamps, perched on mountains, and hidden in far-flung communities, reaching real-time add of Polling Unit outcomes to the INEC Outcome Viewing Portal stays one of many hardest battles for transparency on election day.
“A instrument just like the BVAS is just nearly as good because the community it runs on,” he admitted, noting that the Fee will proceed to have interaction the NCC and community suppliers to seek out methods of addressing the problem, whereas actively exploring different applied sciences to bridge the gaps.
Amupitan insisted that there isn’t a U-turn in deploying expertise for elections within the nation. He firmly shut the door on any ideas of returning to handbook procedures, describing the outdated mannequin of handbook accreditation as “weak to human interference.”
“The positive aspects we have now recorded are too vital to reverse,” the INEC Chairman insisted. He outlined a future the place the Fee wouldn’t solely persist with the present tech however actively improve it to extra seamless options.
“Our mission is easy. To make sure that each eligible voter is precisely verified, each vote is correctly counted, and each result’s transparently shared. Expertise has helped us safe these foundations of democracy,” Amupitan added.
