Osun Election: Yiaga Africa calls for BVAS audit, improved security ahead 2027 polls

The organisation made the recommendations on Sunday in its Process and Results Verification Statement delivered by the Chair of its 2026 Osun Election Observation Mission, Dr Asmau Maikudi, in Osogbo on Sunday.

Maikudi, alongside Yiaga Africa Executive Director, Samson Itodo, commended Osun voters for their resilience and participation in the August 15 governorship election and urged them to continue holding political parties and candidates accountable for their campaign promises.

“Yiaga Africa commends the people of Osun for their resilience and commitment by turning out to vote in the election,” the organisation said.

It recommended that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, issue binding, uniform guidance to presiding officers on the acceptance of downloadable Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, and their use for voter accreditation.

Yiaga Africa also called on INEC to conduct a comprehensive post-election technical audit of BVAS devices to identify the causes of failures and strengthen device testing, maintenance and rapid technical support before the 2027 elections.

It further urged the electoral commission to publish the causes of biometric authentication failures recorded during accreditation and outline the remedial measures to be implemented ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The organisation also recommended improved training and supervision of ad hoc election officials, stressing the need for consistency in applying election-day procedures across polling units.

On election security, Yiaga Africa urged security agencies to review their deployment arrangements and ensure joint movement of security personnel, election officials and sensitive materials from Registration Area Centres, RACs, to polling units on election day.

It also called on the Nigeria Police Force to publish a report on its deployment during the Osun election, including the number of arrests made and plans for prosecution.

“This is important in ensuring perpetrators of violence that led to the death of citizens in the pre-election phase are properly prosecuted,” Yiaga Africa said.

The organisation urged political parties to invest in systematic training of polling agents on the Electoral Act 2026, INEC regulations and guidelines, as well as voter education ahead of the 2027 elections.

Yiaga Africa also called on security agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, to extend enforcement against vote buying beyond polling-unit precincts.

“Security agencies, the EFCC and the ICPC should extend enforcement beyond the polling unit precinct to the surrounding spaces where inducement now takes place, and should arrest and prosecute offenders, including party financiers and agents,” it added.

The organisation said its Process and Results Verification for Transparency methodology involved 300 observers, 32 mobile observers and 30 Local Government Area results collation observers across all 30 LGAs.

“Our findings were based on reports from 289 of the 300 sampled polling units, representing 96 per cent coverage,” it said.

Yiaga Africa said the official results announced by INEC were consistent with its statistical estimates, and stressed that the finding specifically confirmed the accuracy of polling-unit result tabulation and did not remove concerns over reported vote buying and voter inducement.

It also said INEC’s 43 per cent official turnout fell within its estimated range of 42.5 to 44.8 per cent.