THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has refuted claims made by the Social Democratic Party that the commission’s personnel is reconfiguring the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System ahead of the state’s governorship race on November 11.
This was revealed in a statement today posted on the commission’s verified X account.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, confirmed the post.
“The attention of the commission has been drawn to a statement signed by I. D. Ijele, Director of New Media of the SDP Governorship campaign team in Kogi State. The statement alleged that three staff of INEC are now maliciously reconfiguring the BVAS machines in the Government House, Lokoja, to manipulate the forthcoming governorship election in a part of the state in favour of a candidate.
“The story is untrue. The three persons mentioned are not associated with the configuration of the BVAS machines and are 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,” INEC said.
According to the post, BVAS configuration is done concurrently and exclusively in INEC offices in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi states, and is professionally and strictly handled by teams deployed from the national headquarters in Abuja.
It said, “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.”
