By Ismail Azeez
With less than two weeks to the August 15 Osun State governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted a statewide mock accreditation exercise using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
The exercise was designed to stress-test the technological infrastructure under real-world field conditions, identify operational gaps, and reassure voters of the commission’s readiness ahead of the poll.
The mock exercise was conducted across 12 selected Local Government Areas (LGAs) four per senatorial zone on Saturday. Osogbo, Olorunda, Ifelodun, and Boripe LGAs were selected in Osun Central; Ilesa West, Ilesa East, Oriade, and Obokun LGAs were chosen in Osun East; while Egbedore, Ede North, Ede South, and Ejigbo LGAs were selected in Osun West.
Although the exercise was scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., it started behind schedule in some polling units. Less than 40 minutes after the exercise commenced, several BVAS machines stopped recognizing fingerprints, facial features, and Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), preventing the successful accreditation of voters in the affected locations.
A civil society group, the Coalition of Concerned Nigerian Citizens (CCNC), described the development as disturbing.
The group stated that while a mock accreditation exercise should ordinarily boost public confidence in the electoral process, the reported malfunction of the accreditation devices during the test had instead raised questions about the commission’s level of preparedness.
CCNC also questioned why such challenges occurred despite years of preparation and substantial public investment in electoral technology.
It called on the Osun Resident Electoral Commissioner and the national leadership of INEC to provide a comprehensive explanation regarding the cause of the reported BVAS malfunctions and disclose measures being taken to prevent a recurrence during the August 15 governorship election.
However, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN), stated that he led a high-level delegation including National Commissioners, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Directors, technical teams, and other senior officials on an extensive, field-level inspection of the mock accreditation.
Amupitan disclosed that the initial problem encountered involved older voter cards.
He explained that once the issue was reported, the commission resolved the glitch affecting the older cards, ensuring that both old and new cards functioned properly for the remainder of the exercise.
He said, “To ensure that any sudden field failure is instantly neutralized, we have provisioned an upgraded pool of backup BVAS devices assigned to dedicated technical support engineers across every Registration Area (Ward).”
“Based on concerns expressed by political parties regarding the number of BVAS deployed to the state, we have increased the total number of BVAS units for the election from 4,427 to 5,130 to service split polling units in large PUs across Ife East, Irewole, Egbedore, Ede North, and Osogbo. In the process, we increased the number of backup units from 664 to 1,328 for quick intervention in case of any malfunction.”
“What we saw today confirms that our technological defense against identity theft and results manipulation is robust and fully operational.”
The BVAS mock accreditation exercise offers important lessons for political parties, election observers, and other stakeholders. It has provided an early indication of both the strengths and the challenges that could shape the conduct and credibility of the August 15 governorship election in Osun State.