Kogi Guber Poll: INEC Denies Voter Accreditation Data Manipulation

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed claims that it tampered with the accreditation figures of voters in the Kogi governorship election results uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, describing allegation as baseless and unfounded.

The Commission stated this in a statement signed by its national commissioner and member Information and Voter Education Committee, Mallam Mohammed Kudu Haruna, on Tuesday.

INEC insisted that 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.”

The nation’s electoral body disclosed that BVAS was designed to work offline without internet connectivity.

This, according to him, “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.”

INEC said 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,” it added.

It stated that at the close of poll, presiding officers were expected to press the data exportation button on the BVAS to ensure that all the accreditation data were exported to the ABS.

INEC added that synchronisation of BVAS and ABS was ongoing, stating that accreditation data cannot be changed on the BVAS after the close of the poll.

It, therefore, called on Nigerians to disregard the misleading report and misinformation.