INEC To Train Ad Hoc Staff On Use Of BVAS, Conduct Mock Accreditation

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the Ad Hoc Staff for the forthcoming general elections will be trained on the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and other aspects of the elections.

The Permanent Voter Card Reader (PVC) and Fingerprint Authentication System (BVAS) are technological tools created by INEC to read PVCs and authenticate voters to confirm their right to vote at a certain polling unit.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan on Thursday, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Osun State, Dr. Mutiu Agboke, said corps members supervising polling officers and collation officers, will be trained on how to use BVAS.

He said: “Everyone must be outstanding in the job, as the commission is not going to tolerate anybody sabotaging the election processes for us.

“We are going to train and retrain all ad hoc staff, and organized refresher courses for them, all these will enhance the election processes to achieve success.”

Agboke noted that there was a Code of Conduct for the election that all of the ad hoc personnel would sign and that anyone who violates it will be subject to legal repercussions.

Regarding security, the Osun REC stated that each state’s Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) holds frequent meetings to prevent criminal excesses before, during, and after elections.

He said the Police, NSCDC, ICPC, and EFCC are all members of the ICCES.

INEC To Conduct Mock Accreditation

Dr. Mutiu Agboke, the REC for Osun State, told NAN that the commission would conduct mock accreditation across the nation before the general elections.

He said the exercise will be conducted at particular voting locations to evaluate the BVAS’s effectiveness.

“We have used BVAS in some of our by-elections and off-season governorship elections”, he noted.

“But in the wisdom of the commission, it decided that the new technology of BVAS has to be test-run and look at the way it will perform since the commission has not used it during general elections.

“This will make us know whether its efficiency is still guaranteed or otherwise.

“So the commission will announce the date for the exercise soon, it has picked the senatorial districts, local governments, wards, and polling units where the mock accreditation will be held.”