Olu Samuel, Lokoja

The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), has deployed no fewer than 3,508 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, (BVAS) for the 2023 general election in Kogi State.

The electoral body subsequently announced Saturday February 4th 2023 for the conduct of mock accreditation of voters using BVAS across three Senatorial Districts in Kogi State.

The Head of Department, Voter Education of INEC in Kogi State Haliru Haruna Sule disclosed this on Wednesday when he featured on a current affairs programe on a private radio station in Kogi State Grace FM which was monitored by our correspondent in Lokoja.

Sule stated that, the Commission has set aside many back up BVAS incase the any of the system malfunction during the election period.

According to the INEC officials, mock accreditation will be taking place in six Local Government Areas in the State.

They are Lokoja, Kabba Bunu, Okene, Ajaokuta, Dekina and Ibaji Local Government Area.

“Every voters has digital identities. The BVAS is meant for the accreditation of voters and testing the voters biometrics. We deliberately choose some Local Government especially in Ibaji which we believe has the remotest polling units in Kogi State and the inhabitants of Ibaji are predominantly farmers.

“Most of them are engage in hard labour and we feel that, the BVAS should be tested there. If they cannot be authenticated with their finger print they can be authenticated with their facials. We want to ensure that their footprint is authenticated. We want to test the durations of the batteries of the BVAS practically.

“On election day, election is supposed to start from 8:30am and close by 2:30PM. But the rule says all the people on the queue either they are 200, you must attend to them. You can’t say because it is 2:30PM you won’t attend to them. You must attend to those that are on the queue. It is part of what we want to test between 8:30am to between 5PM or 6PM and more” he stated.