2023: INEC allays electorates’ concerns over data theft, electoral fraud

Concerns amongst the electorates over a sabotage of the electoral process has been allayed by the Independent National Electoral Commission as the polls beckon.

Festus Okoye, during an appearance on AriseTV’s “Morning Show” on Monday, revealed that criminals involved in the theft of Voter Identification Numbers are engaging in a futile venture.

He further clarified that the data of every registered voter was domiciled in the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and not in the PVCs.

He said, “Those who are harvesting VINs of registered voters are doing that in futility. Why are they harvesting and buying off VINs when those VINs were published in our local government areas and in our registration areas when we displayed the voters registers for claims and objections. Those VINs are there.

“We have made it very clear that this Commission will deploy BVAS for voters’ identification and authentication and the data of every registered voter in Nigeria per polling unit is domiciled in BVAS and not in the PVCs.

“The only thing the Presiding Officer will do on election day is to look at the last six digits of your PVC and use it to bring out your VIN for the purpose of calling up your data from the BVAS. Those buying PVCs and harvesting VINs can only engage in voter oppression.

Read also:1.6m PVCs uncollected in Lagos – INEC

“They can only prevent the voter from going to the polling unit on election day but in terms of carrying the PVC of someone else to give another person for voting, I can assure you that it is next to impossible.”

There is hardly any election in Nigeria where such fraudulent activities have not been reported. It happened in the 2011 and 2015 elections. In the 2019 general election, an occurrence of this was also reported.

The 2023 general election is less than two months away. As citizens and civil society groups continue to encourage eligible voters to get their PVC in preparation for the polls, more electoral education may need to be done in enlightening the public on the various forms of electoral frauds and implications to the development of the country’s electoral processes and democracy as a whole.

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