Osun Decides: Yiaga Africa Says Voter Vigilance Stopped Result Manipulation, Calls For BVAS Audit

Yiaga Africa says the vigilance of voters in Osun State was the most effective deterrent to result manipulation in Saturday’s governorship election, noting that citizens stayed back at polling units and followed results to ward and LGA collation centres to ensure the figures announced were not altered.

The civil society organisation described the just-concluded governorship election as a significant demonstration of how technology, citizen vigilance and institutional preparedness can strengthen electoral integrity.

Yiaga Africa, in its Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) statement on the election on Sunday, noted that its statistical estimates closely matched the official results announced by INEC, indicating that the figures declared at the state collation centre reflected the votes counted at polling.

The Chairperson of the Osun Election Observation Mission of Yiaga Africa, Dr Asmau Maikudi, who read the statement, said the group deployed 300 observers and 32 mobile observers across the 30 LGAs and based its findings on reports from 289 of 300 sampled polling units.

According to Yiaga, the August 15 poll was a defining test of the Electoral Act 2026 and showed that when institutions, technology and citizens worked together, credible outcomes were possible.

“The resilience of voters in Osun was the quiet achievement of the August 15th elections. Citizens went to the polls in an environment shaped by the attack on PVC collection centres, politically linked violence, contestation over motor parks, and weeks of inflammatory rhetoric, conditions that Yiaga Africa warned could suppress voter participation.

“Despite this tension, voters came out regardless. The turnout of 43% achieved under that apprehension is not a story of apathy but of citizens who refused to be intimidated out of the process.

“Voters also did not stop at casting the ballot. In line with Yiaga Africa’s pre-election Protect Your Vote campaign, they stayed back at polling units to witness the sorting, counting and announcement of results, and followed those results to ward and LGA collation centres to see them entered and declared. That vigilance is the most effective deterrent to result manipulation,” Yiaga Africa stated

Maikudi noted improvements in election-day logistics, with 96% of polling units opening for accreditation and voting by 9:30am despite INEC reprinting ballots after a last-minute court order on the inclusion of the Social Democratic Party on the ballot.

She said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System worked in 80% of polling units and was fixed in the remaining 20%, while downloadable Permanent Voter Cards introduced under the Electoral Act 2026 were used in 23% of polling units.

The group also reported high transparency at counting, with 99% of polling units showing how ballots were marked, 91% posting results publicly, and 85% transmitting EC8A forms to IReV.

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Yiaga recommended binding INEC guidance on downloadable PVCs, a technical audit of BVAS, publication of causes of biometric failures, better training for ad hoc staff, and stronger enforcement against vote buying by security agencies, EFCC and ICPC ahead of 2027.

“INEC should issue binding, uniform guidance to presiding officers on the acceptance of downloadable PVCs and usage for voter accreditation. A comprehensive post-election technical audit of the BVAS devices should be conducted to identify the causes of the failures and strengthen device testing, maintenance and rapid technical support to minimise disruptions to voter accreditation ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“INEC should ensure effective and comprehensive training of ad hoc officials, an effective oversight system for personnel deployed in the field and consistency in the application of the election day procedure.

Security should review their deployment ahead of the 2027 general election by ensuring the joint deployment of security officials with the polling officials and election materials from the RACs to the Polling units on election day,” Maikudi noted.