INEC trains staff on BVAS, vows to make FCT Area Council poll a model
Oru Leonard
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has on Friday, January 28th, 2022 trained staff on the operation of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the conduct of the Feb. 12 Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory.
The workshop was organised by the INEC Board of Electoral Institute (BEI) in collaboration with the ICT Department of the commission to ensure effectively operation of the BVAS as well as to build the capacity of electoral officers to upload election result on INEC Result portal using INEC Results Viewing Device (IREV).
Prof. Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of BEI, while declaring the training open, said that the training had become imperative for conduct of credible election on Feb. 12 in Abuja.
Zuru urged the staff to be good ambassadors of the Commission while discharging their duties as Trainers and RATECHs before, during and after the elections at the various Area Councils.
“We simply cannot afford to underperform. The Commission will deploy all necessary human, materials and managerial resources to ensure that the election is free, fair, credible, peaceful, inclusive and transparent.
“The election will be a model for the forthcoming State and Federal Constituencies Bye-Election, Ekiti and Osun Governorship Elections and indeed the 2023 General Election.
“The FCT election is yet another opportunity for the Commission to fine-tune its policies, processes and procedures.
“Most importantly, it avails the Commission the opportunity to integrate the deployment of its newly introduced technologies and innovations for seamless accreditation of voters, processing of results and protection of elections officials, facilities and processes.
“In this regard, the lessons learnt and experiences harvested from the recently conducted Anambra State governorship election will be invaluable,” he said.
The chairman said that the weaknesses of the Smart Card Readers (SCRs) used in 2015 and 2019 general elections necessitated the introduction of BVAS, “a biometric authentication device integrating both fingerprint and facial technologies, designed to ensure full voter verification and authentication on Election Day through either his/her fingerprint or facial features.
“Thus, where fingerprint authentication fails, facial recognition will be used. Where both finger print and facial authentications fail, the voter will not be allowed to vote and will be politely requested to leave.
“No incident form will be used. For now, this is the only way to ensure that the principle of “One Person One Vote” is achieved.”
He said that BVAS played significant role in ensuring that the integrity of accreditation of voters and the collation of results by helping to instantly upload the authentic polling unit results.
“These technological and managerial innovations are aimed at entrenching the culture of transparency and integrity in the conduct of credible elections in Nigeria and they have proven to be instrumental for the successful conduct of the recent Anambra State Governorship election.
“Therefore, you are being trained today as technical experts so that you can train other Adhoc Staff to use the BVAS appropriately,” he urged.
Earlier, the FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Yahaya Bello advised the participants to remain committed, dedicated and impartial in the discharge of their duties commencing with the Training Exercise and at the FCT Election.
The INEC Director ICT, Mr Chidi Nwafor, who underscored the importance of the training, said it was expected to ensure that accreditation of voters at the forthcoming election was hitch free.
Also Speaking at the Training Centre, the CEO and Founder of Albino Foundation Mr Jake Ekpelle, who commended INEC’s efforts on inclusivity, described the Commission as the most compliant agency on inclusivity in the country.
According to him, for Election to be inclusive, discriminations, or segregation of any form must not happen during and after election.
(Persecondsnews)
