Protesters fault non-usage of BIVAS in Kogi gov election

Scores of demonstrators stormed the gates of the National Assembly in Abuja on Thursday demanding to know why the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmoud, failed to use the new voting technology, Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, in some centres at the last governorship election in Kogi State.

The protesters insisted that the electoral umpire’s failure to further deploy the INEC Result Viewing Portal for people to monitor the poll results in real-time contributed to the victory of the All Progressives Congress candidate, Usman Ododo.

The protest comes a few hours after the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Thursday reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Murtala Ajaka, against the May 27 ruling of the state election petition tribunal.

PUNCH online reported that a three-member panel of the tribunal had affirmed the November 11, 2023 election victory of Ododo.

Both the SDP and Ajaka challenged the APC candidate’s victory after INEC declared him the winner.

Chanting solidarity songs and displaying several banners that read, ‘Nigerian judges, uphold BVAS integrity’, ‘Technicality cannot override BVAS’ and ‘BVAS: Safeguard Nigeria’s democratic future,’ the protesters, under the aegis of Concerned Kogi Citizens, appealed to the lawmakers and President Bola Tinubu to uphold the tenets of democracy.

Addressing newsmen at the entrance of the assembly, the leader of the protesters, Isaiah Ijele, said, “Our protest is premised on the recent BVAS fraud in the Kogi State Governorship Election of November
11, 2023 where the BVAS Technology was bypassed leading to the emergence of an unpopular candidate in the person of Governor Usman Ododo.

“The 9th National Assembly wrote its name in gold when it amended the Electoral Law to produce the 2022 Electoral Act with a renewed hope that BVAS technology will be used to curb overvoting and other Electoral irregularities/fraud forever.

“Kogi people feel so betrayed that after all the assurances given by INEC that BVAS machines will be used to curb overvoting, some INEC officials compromised and sold Kogi State out. We are here to appeal to the lawmakers to use their good office to save democracy in Kogi State and Nigeria as a whole.

“We demand that BVAS be made mandatory for accreditation during elections and appeal that the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, be summoned before the Senate to explain to Nigerians why he authoriseed his staff and legal team to defend the malpractices that were carried out.

“We further demand that INEC should declare election results from the IREV only after confirming the exact number of accredited voters on BVAS. We have lost hope in professors conducting elections.”