Published 28th Jan, 2023

By Tarinipre Francis

The necessity of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is being called to question following the overturn of the 2022 BVAS-assisted Osun gubernatorial election results because of over-voting.

According to the Osun State Election Tribunal on Friday, the state recorded over-voting in 744 polling units.

When subtracted from the total number of votes recorded by Adegboyega Oyetola, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, and Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Oyetola recorded more votes to emerge winner.

On July 16, 2022, Adeleke ran against Oyetola for governor of Osun State and was declared the winner by a margin of 28,344 votes.

Oyetola wrote a petition and challenged the result at the tribunal on the grounds of over-voting in 749 of 3,769 polling units.

Adeleke has rejected the tribunal’s ruling and made known his decision to challenge the judgement in the Court of Appeal.

Public concern, however, has shifted to the credibility of the BVAS.

The BVAS is part of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) technological innovation to stem electoral malpractices in the country.

As the name implies, it is a two-way voter authentication technological device that verifies voters either through fingerprint capture or facial recognition.

The commission has continuously lauded the BVAS as an innovation to checkmate identity theft and ensure that only registered voters vote.

The new development in Osun has, however, raised concerns over the credibility of those claims and shaken voters’ confidence in the device and electoral process.

Reacting to the news on Twitter, Gimba Kakanda wrote, “Where are our friends at INEC to explain the ruling of Osun tribunal? The annulment of Adeleke’s election over allegation of over-voting calls to question the reason for BVAS, which was procured to stall such malpractice. So, what happened and what does this say about February?”

“But my question is how can there be over-voting with the BVAS machine? Interesting indeed,” Idowu Daramola tweeted.

Another Twitter user, Nefertiti, wrote, “BVAS is supposed to be full proof like an ATM. ATM machines cannot dispense more cash to you, more than you want to withdraw. So how did INEC allow its BVAS record over-voting in whopping 749 polling units? @inecnigeria, how did this happen?”

“If BVAS accredited voters before they voted, why can’t it also reject upload of polling results if total voters exceed accredited numbers? Maybe I am missing something. We need to ask questions and stop wasting public resources for litigation,” Oluseun Onigbinde, tweeted.

Olumide, another Twitter user, simply wrote, “So, INEC has been deceiving us with the useless BVAS all these days.”

“@inecnigeria must clarify issues on BVAS. Over-voting in Osun State election as noted in the judgement of Osun tribunal puts BVAS under scrutiny. Were the results a function of computation or corruption? Nigerians need an answer to this poser before February polls,” Jaymie Bright wrote.

Since the introduction of the BVAS, it has been deployed in governorship elections in three states: Anambra, Ekiti and Osun.

In the Osun State election, the use of BVAS enjoyed wide acclaim and commendation.

The Centre for Democracy and Development reported that the device was used in at least 92 per cent of polling units.

Following its relative “success”, INEC is set to deploy the machines for the forthcoming general election, and it has announced that there is no going back on its decision to deploy BVAS during the election.

In the early hours of Friday, the commission announced that starting on February 4, it would conduct a nationwide mock voter accreditation exercise to assess the BVAS ahead of the elections.

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