During a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, acknowledged that the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections were extremely challenging due to issues such as logistics, election technology, the behavior of some election personnel at different levels, and the attitude of some party agents and supporters.
Yakubu warned that the RECs would be held responsible for any flaws in logistics, and announced that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would be deployed for voter accreditation and result management during the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections. The INEC Chairman stated that the commission had intensified technology reviews to rectify glitches experienced during the last election, particularly with the uploading of results.
Yakubu emphasized the need for immediate, medium, and long-term solutions to the challenges faced in the last election and announced that staff found to be negligent, including Collation and Returning Officers, would not be involved in forthcoming elections.
He also announced that refresher training would be conducted for ad hoc staff that participated in the last election, and where they are replaced for a good reason, they must be properly trained so that processes are not delayed or compromised at any stage.
The INEC Chairman stated that the commission has enough facilities in all the states of the federation, and failure to deploy them is inexcusable. Finally, Yakubu announced that the commission has received reports from State offices and complaints and petitions from political parties and candidates, and where infractions of any kind are proven, there will be redress.
