In line with the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it has received the last consignment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems (BVAS) machines.
The National Commissioner & Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee of the Commission, Festus Okoye made this known in a statement .
He said INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, national commissioners and senior officials of the Commission were at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, to receive the BVAS on Tuesday.
Okoye said the Commission created four airport hubs in Abuja, Kano, Lagos, and Port Harcourt, as part of efforts to facilitate the smooth delivery of the machines,
He said over the last four months, several flights delivered the BVAS to the designated airports for movement to states of the Federation ahead of the elections.
With the arrival of the last flight in Abuja on Tuesday, the Commission has now taken delivery of the required number of the BVAS for all the polling units in the country and extra machines in line with its contingency provisions for all critical election materials, according to the INEC commissioner.
He added that the Commission appreciates the support of all Nigerians in its determination to conduct free, fair, credible, transparent, and inclusive 2023 general elections facilitated by the deployment of technology.
The BVAS is one of major technologies INEC is deploying to ensure credible and transparent polls next month.
Meanwhile, the commission said more than 1.4 million adhoc staff will be trained in the effective usage of the Bimodal Voter Registration Systems (BVAS) for the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
In addition, the Commission said it has sufficient BVAS to conduct elections in the 176,846 polling units nationwide.
He said, “We want to train our ad hoc staff longer so that we won’t have people not knowing how to use the BVAS and blaming it on technology and so on.
“The BVAS, which we said will be the game-changer in relation to this election, is in place. And I want to confirm that we have a sufficient number of BVAS that will be used in the conduct of elections in the 176,846 polling units across this country,” adding that“We are also harvesting the names and details of those that will serve as our adhoc staff. For the two elections, the national and state elections, we are going to engage over 1.4 million adhoc staff and we are going to train them,” he said.
Okoye further stated that the processes and procedures of the commission are going well as planned and Nigerians should expect a very good election in 2023.
“People of this country should expect that INEC will conduct a very good election. Conducting a very good election in terms of the fact that we started preparations for the 2023 general elections immediately we finished with the 2019 general election.
“As of today, our processes and procedures are going well as planned.”
Okoye said by December 30, 2022, political parties were supposed to have submitted the names, signatures and personal particulars of their polling agents in relation to national election.
On January 6, 2023, they are supposed to submit the names, the signatures, photographs and particulars of their agents on state elections, he said.
The INEC commissioner also said on January 12, 2023, INEC will release the official list of voters noting that “all these things are going as planned and they are going to be accomplished on schedule.”
