The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the Nov.11 Kogi governorship election was free, fair and credible.
This is as the commission faulted claims that it tampered with the accredited figures of voters in the election.
INEC said this in a statement by its National Commissioner and member, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The attention of INEC has been drawn to some media reports alleging it tampered with the accredited figures of voters in Kogi governorship election results uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
“However, these reports are unfounded.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the most accurate and up-to-date voters’ accreditation data is available in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
“BVAS is used for the authentication and accreditation of registered voters at various polling units on election day. It automatically retains the accreditation data of all voters,” he said.
Haruna said that the BVAS was designed to primarily work offline without Internet connectivity, which facilitates faster and seamless authentication and accreditation experience for voters.
“When BVAS application is active or in use, depending on the strength of its connection to the Internet, the BVAS automatically exports the accreditation data to the Accreditation Backend System (ABS).
“This exportation of data does not happen when the device’s application is inactive or when the internet connectivity is poor.
“The same experience applies to a situation where more than one BVAS gadget is used at a polling unit with more than 1,250 registered voters.
“This could be compared to a situation when poor network services delay the delivery of an SMS sent from one individual to another through a mobile phone, “ he said.
