The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has refuted reports that it is reconfiguring the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to favour a political party’s candidate in governorship election which comes up on November 11 in Kogi State.
The BVAS machine is primed for accrediting voters by fingerprint and facial recognition technology using their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
Isaiah Ijele, Director of New Media for the Kogi State Governorship Campaign Council of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) had accused some INEC staff of involvement in a scheme to manipulate BVAS machines foor the alleged purpose.
Ijele claimed that the Kogi State Government had lodged three INEC staff at the Government House since Wednesday for the purpose of reconfiguring some personalised BVAS machines to be merged with INEC’s deployment in specific regions such as Okene, Adavi, and Okehi Local Government Area of Kogi State.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, spokesperson to the INEC Chairman, however refuted the claims. Oyekanmi said the allegations were untrue and called on political parties to “desist from engaging in malicious rumour-mongering of this nature.”
He said the configuration of BVAS machines was done simultaneously and exclusively in INEC offices in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi by teams deployed from the national headquarters, Abuja.
“The public is advised to disregard the story as fake news. At the same time, the commission appeals to political parties to desist from engaging in malicious rumour-mongering of this nature,” Oyekanmi said.
