We Won’t Use BVAS In LG Elections – BSIEC

The Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) has disclosed that the commission will not use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the forthcoming local government election slated for October 5, 2024.

Chairman of the commission, Richard Tombuwua, who stated this during a press conference at BSIEC headquarters in Makurdi, explained that the commission will use the BSIEC Law to conduct the  election which does not have  provision for use of BVAS.

He said, “The commission is ready to conduct free, fair and credible elections in all the 5,102 polling units of the 276 council wards in the 23 LG areas across the State and we have so far received 21 vehicles and other materials needed for the elections.

According to him,”Eight political parties have met all the conditions to participate  in the elections and have fielded candidates to contest for the forthcoming elections.”

He named the participating political parties in the October 5th elections to includes All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), African Action Congress (AAC), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) Labour Party (LP) All Progressives congress (APC), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Social Democratic Party (SDP) Labour Party (LP).

“We have opened our portal to commence the recruitments of adhoc staff, which is already ongoing, and we have also made arrangements to commence their training alongside the commission’s staff next week.”

Giving clarifications on the issue of some politicians going to court to stop the election, the BSIEC boss said, there is nothing that will stop this election, aside from God because the latest amendment to the Electoral Law has prohibited Court interference from any activity leading to this our election.

“So whether you go to court, you have an injunction or not, it will not stop us from conducting this election going by the latest Benue State LG amended law.”

On the issue of insecurity in some LGs Tombuwua said, “the commission is  collaborating with all security agencies in the State to ensure that the election is conducted in a secured atmosphere.

He said “the collation of results for the chairman will take place at the Local Government headquarters while that of  the  councillors will take place at the wards level.”