December 21, (THEWILL) – The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Cross River State, Professor Yomere Gabriel Omtsemotebi, has revealed that there is no going back on the use of the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, during next year’s general elections.
Professor Yomere disclosed this in Calabar, during a meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee On Election Security in Calabar.
He said the 2022 electoral act empowers the commission to use the BVAS and the issue of ballot box snatching will be a thing of the past.
“There is no going back on the use of BVAS, as we are going to use it.
“BVAS is a technology the 2022 electoral act empowers the commission to use.
“BVAS will be used in accrediting and will rely on the thumbprint and the face, the system will verify this and if it does not tally, you will not vote.
“After voting, the result will be scanned and sent electronically, with this we are hoping that the issue of ballot box snatching and proxy voting will be a thing of the past”, he said.
He said voters in each of the 3,281 polling units in the state have been pegged at 1,000 people so the electorate don’t have to trek long distances to cast their votes.
He also said in order to facilitate the speedy distribution of the PVCs, the Electoral Officers have been mandated to work together with stakeholders, as well as community leaders to facilitate the distribution exercise.
He also said INEC will ensure its hands remain clean throughout the electoral process, as the next election can either make Nigeria great or set it on fire.
He added that the meeting is his first with the committee and solicited their support as the election is less than 60 days away.
Agencies that attended the meeting included the Nigerian Police, Army, Airforce, Prison, Immigration, ICPC, EFCC, Civil Defence, DSS, Fire Service and NDLEA.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
