Yusuf Oketola
SEQUEL to the verdict of the governorship election petition tribunal in the State of Osun, a former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, has joined the debate on the credibility or otherwise of usage of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines during the July 16, 2022 governorship election in the state.
Igini, in an interview with journalists in Abuja, on Tuesday, urged Nigerians to disregard and reject all negative insinuations about BVAS, saying that the technology was the new sheriff in the nation’s electoral process.
He stressed that the integrity of the BVAS has not been compromised at any point in time.
Igini said that the Osun governorship election petition tribunal affirmed its longstanding efforts to enthrone the principle of one-person-one-vote and the value of electoral accountability in the system through the use of the BVAS.
According to the former REC, BVAS gives room for meaningful audit of every vote that must be counted and taken into account to determine the winner of any election at the polling units, against the old practice of announcing results at collation centres.
According to him, “As they gang up to tell lies about BVAS, we will say the truth about it. It is the people who are afraid of BVAS and have been opposed to its use in the forthcoming elections that are the ones making uninformed comments to discredit the BVAS.
“This gross misunderstanding is a result of the outcome of the court that returned victory to another person other than that initially declared, this seems to create doubts and thoughts that BVAS has issues of fidelity and credibility.
“However, this notion is wholly and totally incorrect and not true. The integrity of the BVAS is intact, it has no problem.”
He said either at wards, local government or other levels of collation, the use of BVAS is a matter of law and procedure as mandated by the Electoral Act 2022, adding that there was no going back on it.
“There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to be worried about on the device. In fact, the Tribunal itself relied on one of the reports of the BVAS which is the ultimate primary source of ascertaining data of accredited voters to make its final declaration and that reinforced the integrity and credibility of the BVAS,” he reiterated.
Igini said the tribunal did not make any adverse or negative finding against the BVAS but on the propriety of three reports of accreditation data, hence the resultant attempts by people to discredit the BVAS that was of interest.
He said given that the BVAS will be deployed in the upcoming general election, many Nigerians were worried by what they read on social media and it became imperative to set the record straight, noting that most of the commentaries “are completely false about BVAS”.
Igini noted that the advocacy and clamour for independent, fearless and courageous judiciary will be meaningless and hopeless if urgent steps are not taken to improve and guarantee the material condition of judges.
