INEC To Keep 2023 Sensitive Election Materials With CBN

The National Commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC, Festus Okoye, on Tuesday, disclosed that The Independent National Electoral Commission would be keeping sensitive materials for the 2023 general elections in the custody of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

In 2022, it could be recalled that there was serious trend towards the election materials, which was said would be kept at CBN, despite the news that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele showed interest in contesting for the presidential position of the country.

The Chairman, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, on June 4, 2022, as regards the issue stated that sensitive electoral materials would in meantime no longer be linked to the CBN.

The INEC chairman stressed that the since initiation the electoral body had not experience any issue with the CBN concerning the partnership, but as the matter is now “current circumstances”, there will be a change in the method.

Meanwhile, Okoye explained that few sensitive materials have been printed by the commission and delivered to the CBN, he stated that the materials include, results and ballots papers, which were scheduled for movement from there to the commission’s local government offices in the country.

He added that INEC had distributed almost all the non- sensitive materials in the country.

Okoye said, “The commission is ready for the February 25 and March 11, 2023 general elections. The commission has taken delivery of the full complement of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for the 176,846 polling units in Nigeria.

The BVAS will be deployed to all the polling units except the 240 polling units that have zero voters. The commission has taken delivery of the redundancies for the 8, 809 Registration Areas and the 774 local government areas of the country.

“The commission has tested the BVAS and carried out mock accreditation and they are fit for purpose in terms of hardware and software upgrades. The process of configuration of the BVAS has commenced and the commission is satisfied with the progress made so far. The BVAS is a sensitive election material and they are in safe locations under heavy security. The BVAS is the ultimate arbiter and game-changer, and Nigerians expect it to perform optimally. The BVAS is the albatross of election riggers and identity thieves and those with false identity should keep away from the polling units.

“The commission has printed and delivered the bulk of the sensitive materials meant for the conduct of national elections, in terms of result sheets and ballot papers. These materials have been deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria, awaiting movement to the various local government offices of the commission.

“The commission has almost concluded the delivery of the non-sensitive materials and they are presently being batched in accordance with the Registration Areas. The training of various categories of ad hoc staff has commenced and the commission is satisfied with the progress made so far.”

Okoye also expatiated more on the delivery of tags for election observers in the country, “Domestic and international observers applied for accreditation using the Commissions Observer and Party Agents Portal. The commission does not distribute domestic observer tags in the headquarters.

The observers are domiciled in particular local governments and states based on their strength, presence, and geographical coverage. The observer tags are collected at the state level and a few days to the election, these tags will be made available at the state level. The same thing applies to polling agents’ tags.”