INEC To Deploy 3,508 BVAS Machines For Saturday’s Mock Accreditation In Kogi

The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), has disclosed that it would be deploying a total number of 3,508 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, (BVAS) for Saturday’s conduct of mock accreditation in Kogi State.

The commission said the same quantity of machines would be used subsequently for the forthcoming polls.

Naija News gathered that the total number needed would be collected from across the three Senatorial Districts in the state.

It was learnt that the INEC Head of Department for Voter Education in Kogi State, Haliru Haruna Sule revealed the information when he appeared in a current affair programme on the radio station in state Grace FM in Lokoja.

According to him, an unidentified number of the BVAS machines were set aside as backups for any malfunctioning ones.

He noted that the accreditation exercise would hold in six Local Government Areas in the state listed as Lokoja, Kabba Bunu, Okene, Ajaokuta, Dekina and Ibaji Local Government Areas

Sule explained that “Every voter has a digital identity. The BVAS is meant for the accreditation of voters and testing of the voters’ biometrics. We deliberately choose some Local Governments, especially in Ibaji which we believe has the remotest polling units in Kogi State and the inhabitants of Ibaji are predominantly farmers.

“Most of them are engaged in hard labour and we feel that the BVAS should be tested there. If they cannot be authenticated with their fingerprint they can be authenticated with their facials. We want to ensure that their footprint is authenticated. We want to test the durations of the batteries of the BVAS practically.

“On election day, the election is supposed to start from 8:30 am and close by 2:30 pm. But the rule says all the people in the queue whether they are 200, you must attend to them. You can’t say because it is 2:30 pm you won’t attend to them. You must attend to those that are in the queue. It is part of what we want to test between 8:30 am to between 5 pm or 6 pm and more.

Recall that INEC announced Saturday, February 4th 2023 for the conduct of mock accreditation of voters using BVAS before the election proper and it urged registered voters to partake in the process.”