The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun the distribution of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to the remaining parts of the country, including the North-East and South-East states.
The Commission began the airlift of BVAS to states amid security concerns over the safety of the electoral equipment.
Confirming this, the Commission, on it’s social media handles, reported that the Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, supervised the airlift at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Wednesday.
This is after INEC earlier, in November, confirmed to newsmen that the North-East and South-East zones were yet to receive BVAS.
The North-East states affected include Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe; while the states in the South-East are Imo, Anambra, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi.
The National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC, Festus Okoye, had told newsmen in November that the non-delivery and non-receipt of the BVAS by the two zones had nothing to do with insecurity.
He explained “The commission has planned and will continue to plan all the activities relating to the conduct of the 2023 general election. The procurement of sensitive and non-sensitive materials, their delivery and deployment have been carefully designed and planned by the commission.
“The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System was designed in-house by the commission’s engineers and is being fabricated outside the country. The manufacturers have kept faith with the timelines and schedules of production and delivery as handed over to them by the commission. The commission has started receiving the deliveries from the designated airports and for designated states; and these have equally been delivered to some of the states of the federation.
“Presently, the consignments meant for the North-East and South-East have not been received by the commission and could not have been delivered to the states.
