The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan, yesterday said that sellers and buyers of votes will be arrested in the August 15 governorship election in Osun State.
Amukpitan also expressed satisfaction with the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) deployed during Saturday’s mock accreditation exercise conducted by the commission ahead of the poll.
Addressing journalists during an interactive session in Osogbo, Amupitan said what his team observed during the accreditation exercise and confirmed that INEC’s technological defence against identity theft and result manipulation is robust and fully operational.
He noted that the mock accreditation exercise is part of INEC’s quality assurance protocol, adding that it is designed to stress-test the commission’s technological infrastructure under real-world field conditions before the actual election.
According to him, the BVAS demonstrated optimal field resilience during the exercise, with voter accreditation taking between 30 seconds and two minutes using either fingerprint or facial recognition.
“The dual-authentication nature of the BVAS has significantly minimised instances of non-verification, which was one of our primary goals,” he said.
Amupitan further disclosed that, following concerns raised by some political parties over the number of BVAS devices deployed to the state, INEC increased the number of machines for the election from 4,427 to 5,130 to cater for split polling units in large polling units in Ife East, Irewole, Egbedore, Ede North and Osogbo.
“Based on concerns expressed by some political parties on the number of BVAS deployed to the state, we have increased the total number of BVAS for the election from 4,427 to 5,130,” he stated.
On vote buying, the INEC chairman said plainclothes anti-corruption officers would monitor the perimeters of polling units to arrest both vote buyers and sellers.
He added that the commission was partnering with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to track suspicious bank transactions.
He said the commission might also leverage the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and was already in discussions with the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation on additional measures to combat the menace.
The INEC boss, who harped on the need for a peaceful election, said the commission had held strategic meetings with security agencies under the aegis of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
“We have received assurances that a specialised, non-partisan security deployment plan is in place to protect the integrity of the ballot and ensure that citizens of Osun can exercise their franchise without fear,” he said.
Amupitan also assured persons with disabilities of the seamless exercise of their civic rights, adding that everything required to ensure a hitch-free election had been put in place.
