INEC Failed To Show Evidence Of Election Data Deleted From BVAS, Stored On Back-End Server – EU

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) has voiced concerns regarding the handling of election data in Nigeria.

In its recent report, the group noted a controversy over the erasure of data from the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) following the presidential election in February 2023 and before the governorship elections in March 2023.

The report mentions that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the body overseeing the elections, didn’t provide clear information about what data was removed from the BVAS machines and what was stored on a back-end server.

This lack of transparency from INEC has raised doubts and concerns among election stakeholders, the EUEOM highlighted.

Digital forensic expert Hitler Nwuala told the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja that INEC purposefully deleted all BVAS results.

The BVAS is a tool used to authenticate voters via their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and biometric data, like fingerprints or face recognition.

Political parties have raised concerns that removing the presidential election data could put sensitive information at risk.

Despite this, INEC stated the data needed to be deleted and backed up to a cloud server to repurpose the BVAS machines for the governorship election.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party, two major opposition groups, continue to question the integrity of the BVAS files at the presidential elections tribunal, urging INEC to be more transparent.

While the EU’s report echoes these concerns, it remains uncertain how INEC’s decision will impact the tribunal’s outcome.