By Abiodun Folarin
WorldStage– The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has increased the number of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices for the August 15 Osun State Governorship Election from 4,427 to 5,130 and doubled the number of backup devices to 1,328, following concerns raised by political parties and lessons from its mock accreditation exercise.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Saturday during an interactive session with media executives in Osogbo, saying the Commission had strengthened its technological, security and inclusivity frameworks to ensure a credible, peaceful and transparent election.
According to him, the decision followed the successful mock accreditation exercise conducted across polling units in Osogbo, Oriade and other local government areas as part of INEC’s quality assurance process to test the resilience of its election technology under real field conditions.
“The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) demonstrated optimal field resilience. On average, it took between 30 seconds and two minutes to successfully verify a voter using either fingerprints or facial recognition,” he said.
Explaining the increase in BVAS deployment, Amupitan said the additional devices would cater for split polling units in Ife East, Irewole, Egbedore, Ede North and Osogbo.
“Based on concerns expressed by some political parties on the number of BVAS deployed to the state, we have increased the total number of BVAS for the election from 4,427 to 5,130 to service split polling units. In the process, we also increased the number of backup devices from 664 to 1,328 for quick intervention in case of any malfunction,” he said.
He added that dedicated technical support engineers had been assigned to backup BVAS devices across every Registration Area and Ward to ensure that any equipment failure is immediately addressed.
“What we saw today confirms that our technological defence against identity theft and result manipulation is robust and fully operational,” he stated.
The INEC Chairman said preparations for the election had reached an advanced stage, with 2,339,233 registered voters expected to vote at 3,763 polling units across 320 wards in the state’s 30 local government areas.
He disclosed that 14 political parties are participating in the election, while training for ad hoc personnel is nearing completion. About 32,000 NYSC members recruited through the sanitised INECPRES portal will be deployed for election duties.
Beyond technology, Amupitan stressed that the Commission was committed to ensuring that no eligible voter is disenfranchised because of disability, age or physical condition.
“Democracy is incomplete if it excludes vulnerable populations,” he said.
He explained that INEC had deployed practical assistive devices across polling units based on disability mapping conducted in Osun State. These include Braille ballot guides for visually impaired voters, magnifying glasses for persons with albinism and those with low vision, EC40H poster manifests for hearing-impaired voters, as well as priority voting queues for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), pregnant women, nursing mothers and elderly voters.
On security, the Chairman said INEC had recalibrated its election security strategy from reactive monitoring to proactive prevention through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES). He added that risk corridors had been identified across several local government areas, including Atakumosa East and West, Boripe, Ede North and South, Ife Central, Ifedayo, Ila, Ifelodun, Oriade and Osogbo.
“The safety of every voter, observer and INEC official remains our top priority. We are working closely with the Police and the Armed Forces to ensure that our staff, our materials and every voter are protected. We will meet any attempt to disrupt this election with the full, unyielding weight of the law,” he warned.
Amupitan also disclosed that INEC is collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to combat vote-buying, noting that plainclothes anti-corruption officers would monitor polling unit environments to arrest both vote buyers and sellers.
Addressing recent attacks on INEC offices in Okuku, Odo-Otin Local Government Area and Ife Central, where Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were stolen, the Chairman assured affected voters that the stolen cards could not be used to vote.
“Stolen PVCs are functionally inert under our system architecture. Without the live biometric verification of the legitimate cardholder on the BVAS, a stolen card cannot accredit anyone to vote,” he said.
He added that the Commission had directed its ICT Department to reprint the stolen PVCs and ensure that affected voters would be able to use downloadable PVCs during the election.
The INEC Chairman also urged journalists to play a responsible role in safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process by combating misinformation and disinformation.
“The greatest threat we face is not technical failure but the pathology of misinformation and disinformation. Fake news, manufactured election-day panic and the unauthorised declaration of parallel results are direct assaults on public peace and democratic stability. Verify your facts before you broadcast. When a glitch occurs in a single polling unit, do not report it as a systemic failure across the entire state,” he advised.
Amupitan commended traditional rulers, including the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, and the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun Oyetunji, for their commitment to promoting peace ahead of the election.
He reaffirmed INEC’s neutrality, saying: “We do not care who wins the election; we only care how they win. Our responsibility is to ensure that the process is credible, every valid vote counts, and the declared result reflects the sovereign will of the people of Osun State.”
The interactive session was attended by INEC National Commissioners, Osun Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barrister Oluwatoyin Babalola, leaders of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), as well as other senior officials of the Commission.
