The Independent National Electoral Commission has said that the November 11 Kogi governorship election was free, fair and credible, describing as misleading reports that it tampered with the accredited figures of voters in the election.

INEC said this in a statement by its National Commissioner and member, Information and Voter Education Committee, Alhaji Mohammed Haruna in Abuja.

“The attention of INEC has been drawn to some media reports alleging it tampered with the accredited figures of voters in Kogi governorship election results uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing portal. However, these reports are unfounded.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the most accurate and up-to-date voter accreditation data is available in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System.

“BVAS is used for the authentication and accreditation of registered voters at various polling units on election day. It automatically retains the accreditation data of all voters,” he said.

Mr Haruna said that the BVAS was designed to primarily work offline without internet connectivity, which facilitates faster and seamless authentication and accreditation experience for voters.

“When BVAS application is active or in use, depending on the strength of its connection to the internet, the BVAS automatically exports the accreditation data to the Accreditation Backend System.

“This exportation of data does not happen when the device’s application is inactive or when the internet connectivity is poor.

“The same experience applies to a situation where more than one BVAS gadget is used at a polling unit with more than 1,250 registered voters.

“This could be compared to a situation when poor network services delay the delivery of an SMS sent from one individual to another through a mobile phone,’’ he said.

Mr Haruna said that at the close of poll, presiding officers were expected to press the data exportation button on the BVAS to ensure that the accreditation data are exported to the ABS.

“This process, referred to as synchronisation and which is ongoing, could lead to changes in the accreditation figures as more data flow in to update the existing figures.

“This is the basis for the caveat provided on the IReV portal, regarding the accreditation figures. The accreditation data cannot be changed on the BVAS after the close of the poll.

“The public should disregard the misleading report and misinformation,” he said.

(NAN)