The Delta State Governorship election holds on Saturday, March 11, 2023, and one of the strong contenders is Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.
To taint the governorship hopeful for next Saturday’s election, a video online linking Senator Ovie Omo-Agege to kicking against the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) was in order.
He was opposed to the introduction of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) because of technical glitches that would defeat the intended positive purpose of the system.
We could all recall its first outing during a by-election in Delta State on September 10, 2021, when, according to reports, some presiding officers complained that the machine had difficulties capturing the thumbs and faces of some of the voters, especially the elderly.
Even though INEC promised to transmit results to every part of Nigeria, we are not sure that the network covers it. We know that even in parts of Abuja, there is no network, and in substantial parts of the country, there is no electricity.
We are tasking INEC in taking effective steps to bridge any gaps that may be created by electricity and telecommunications network challenges in certain outlying voting districts in the country to ensure a smooth and successful deployment of BVAS and other technologies to ensure a free and transparent governorship election.
Some fundamental errors were particularly noticed in the conduct of the governorship election in Osun State, leading to the ongoing litigation threatening the status of the incumbent governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, as the authentic winner of the 2022 contest.
In preparation for the 2023 elections, INEC, apparently taking into cognizance the inherent flaws in BVAS, had embarked upon a series of sensitization programs across the country on its indispensability to ensure free, fair, credible, and acceptable elections.
In light of the assurance given by INEC, the electorate went to their different polling units last Saturday, expectantly casting their votes unhindered by the cumbersome process associated with previous elections in the country.
Alas, hopes and expectations were dashed as INEC failed to live up to expectations in some areas, despite the introduction of BIVAS and other technologies. Problems associated with past elections still manifested last Saturday.
Given the apparent failure of BVAS at some of the voting centres, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) Nigeria 2023, in its preliminary findings, declared that the federal election was characterized by a lack of transparency and operational failures.
However, uploading the results using the BVAS did not work as expected, and presidential election result forms started to appear on the portal very late on Election Day, raising concerns.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, who, along with his wife, was one of the victims of the BVAS glitches, said the failure is evidence of the poor preparedness of INEC for the 2023 elections.
