What We’ll Do If Hoodlums Snatch BVAS On Election Day – INEC

Posted by Samson Kankan Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Wednesday, February 8th, 2023

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Ahead of the February 25 and March 11 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday revealed the action to be taken if hoodlums snatch the Bimodal Voter Registration Systems (BVAS) on election day.

According to the electoral body, the BVAS, the technology that will be used for the accreditation and authentication of voters come 2023, will be deactivated from the backend so that whoever snatched the device won’t be able to manipulate votes.

However, the electoral body expressed confidence in the ability of security agents to secure sensitive and non-sensitive materials at the polling units. The electoral umpire, however, said should snatching of BVAS occur, hoodlums won’t be able to achieve anything with it.

According to the INEC official, if 50 persons were already accredited on a device, and the device is idle, waiting for more voters to come, it will push the 50 already accredited voters to the backend.

“They (hoodlums) can’t take over the accreditation process because the device is designed to push the accredited voters to the back-end,” he said.

Bayode said if hoodlums take the device to other places where they think they can manipulate the data on the device, the polling unit officer will report the incident.

“If such a thing happens, the PO reports and from the backend, that device is deactivated so that the person who took away that device will not be able to do anything with the device,” he said.

Asked what if the polling unit officer is not able to report the hijack immediately, the INEC official said, “Even at that, the person who took the device won’t be able to do anything.”