INEC alleges undermining of BVAS for polls by Nigerians
By : Matthew Ogune, Abuja
Date:
1 December 2021 4:04am WAT
Share :
Head of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu looks ahead of next November 6 governorship election in Akwa, Anambra State in southeast Nigeria, on November 3, 2021. - Nigeria's southeast Anambra state holds elections for local governor's office on NOvember 6, 2021 in a ballot being widely watched as barometer for the country's 2023 presidential vote. More than 30,300 police have been dispatched to secure the state where separatist tensions have been on the rise and the vote will test electoral authorities abilities to organise a ballot in difficult circumstances. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)
Head of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu looks ahead of next November 6 governorship election in Akwa, Anambra State in southeast Nigeria, on November 3, 2021. - Nigeria's southeast Anambra state holds elections for local governor's office on NOvember 6, 2021 in a ballot being widely watched as barometer for the country's 2023 presidential vote. More than 30,300 police have been dispatched to secure the state where separatist tensions have been on the rise and the vote will test electoral authorities abilities to organise a ballot in difficult circumstances. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)
Hon. Chairman INEC, Prof. Mahmood YakubuThe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has alleged that some persons are undermining the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for future elections. It also decried the activities of hackers.
The commission stated that since 2015, hackers have been trying to penetrate its system and compromise the electoral to no avail.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, and Director ICT at INEC headquarters, Chidi Nwafor, made the disclosures at a stakeholders’ roundtable on electoral technology organised by Yiaga Africa in Abuja.
Igini said: “The problem we are having in this country has to do with people who are out to undermine it. As we are working on the BVAS, people are out there to undermine it.”
“They are out there to undermine the process and we do nothing about it. There is an urgent need to bring people (who violate the process) to face the law.”
Nwafor stated: “Hackers have been trying to get into our system. I can tell you that in all the elections, from 2015 to 2019. I know it will happen in 2023, but God has been with us.”
