Cross River State chapter of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has given Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state 24 hours to allow for the inspection of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the 2023 elections, Guardian reports.
The state Chairman of IPAC, Anthony Bissong Attah, who led members of IPAC at a briefing at Earnest Etim Bassey Press Centre of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Calabar, Cross River State, yesterday, said the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Gabriel Yomeri, has to comply to boost confidence in the system.
IPAC chairman said the ultimatum became necessary following the commissioner’s unwillingness to allow them to inspect the machines.
Attah said his organisation made attempts to get the REC to allow inspection of the machines to no avail but that with the election day drawing closer, IPAC would want to inspect the machines if confidence in the REC must be retained.
“We approached the REC exactly two weeks ago to ascertain the real state of the BVAS. He told us his side of the story after which we demanded to inspect the BVAS to see things for ourselves. The REC gleefully accepted and asked us to return to the secretariat by 2p.m. the following day to inspect the machines in the company of police and DSS. But on arriving at INEC secretariat the next day, we were barred from seeing the BVAS.
“In reaction to this action by the electoral umpire, we unanimously stormed out of the meeting and immediately to address the press. We demand that the only way we can trust the commission going forward is to inspect the BVAS and taking record of the IMEI on all the 3281 machines.”
“We give the REC 24 hours to allow political parties to inspect the BVAS in addition to taking full record of the IMEI number.”
