The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has refuted claims that some of its staff are holed up in the Government House in Kogi maliciously reconfiguring BVAS machines ahead of the November 11 governorship election in the state.
The commission said this in a Saturday statement shared on its X page.
Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine is a device used by INEC during elections to capture and authenticate the bearer of the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) and register the same instantly.
“The attention of the Commission has been drawn to a statement signed by ID Ijele, Director of New Media of the SDP Governorship campaign team in Kogi State. The statement alleged that three staff of INEC are right now maliciously reconfiguring the BVAS machines in the Government House, Lokoja, with the intention of manipulating the forthcoming Governorship election in a part of the State in favour of a candidate,” the statement read in part.
Describing the story as “untrue”, INEC said the three persons mentioned are not associated with the configuration of the BVAS machines and not even in Kogi State at the moment.
“Mr. Nicholas Ocholi is on his duty post in our Ondo State office in Akure. Ibrahim Egbunu is attending to a very close family member hospitalised in Abuja. Mohammed Adara retired last year and is no longer a staff of the Commission,” the commission said.
According to the electoral umpire, the configuration of BVAS is done simultaneously and exclusively in INEC’s offices in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States professionally and strictly handled by teams deployed from the national HQ, 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,” INEC said.