The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines have never failed and will not fail Nigerians in the 2023 general election.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made the declaration while assessing activities at polling units in Abuja where mock accreditation of voters was held using the BVAS machines on Saturday.

“In the two polling units we have visited so far, there is no report of failure; the machines have performed optimally and this is the report we are getting so far nationwide.

“We have also made contingency arrangements like we will do on Election Day, that there is a spare machine in case and in the unlikely event of a malfunction we will be able to respond and fix the machines,” Yakubu said.

He stated that from the mock exercise witnessed, it took less than 30 seconds to accredit a voter adding that this was the report INEC was getting from all the selected polling units across the country.

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“The speed is good and also the authentication is good. The BVAS has never failed anywhere,” Yakubu stressed.

Yakubu said no incident of failure had been recorded, saying INEC was hoping and praying having worked very hard that the machines also perform optimally on February 25 and March 11.

The INEC boss assured that accreditation and electronic transmission of results would be done seamlessly during the elections.

“I would not like to comment on the Osun issue because it is a matter in court and is sub-judice.

“However, in every situation the Commission learns, carries the experience from what has happened to improve the processes for the next election.

“We have learned some lessons from what happened and one of the lessons is to be able to transmit the accreditation data,” he added.

It would be recalled that the election petition tribunal nullified the election of Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, on January 27 as a result of over-voting in 10 Local Government Areas of the state at the July 16, 2022, gubernatorial election.

The tribunal asked INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and issue same to Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.

It ruled that if the ballots from the polling units where over-voting took place were withdrawn, Oyetola had more votes than Adeleke.

Adeleke has since said he would appeal the tribunal’s ruling.

The Star