Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is currently in power, has voiced the party’s opposition to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) decision to implement the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and transmit election results electronically.
The ruling party felt Nigeria was not ready for the deployment of such technology and opposed INEC’s plans to launch the Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
When he met a delegation from the Commonwealth Election Observation Mission on Wednesday evening in Abuja, Adamu expressed the APC’s concerns, saying that given the bad network conditions in many regions of the nation, it would be nearly difficult for INEC to carry out its plans.
Adamu was reacting to the electoral umpire’s insistence that there was no going back on the deployment of the technology in the 2023 elections.
“First, I was privileged to serve as a senator. Our concern is how ready are we to deploy some of these technologies as regards transmission because we are taking a major step in transmitting election results in real time.
“To transmit results, every part of the nation Nigeria I’m not sure that the network covers it, I know that even in parts of Abuja, there is no network and we have from now till February when in substantial parts of the country there is no electricity.
“INEC must assure us 100 percent that as at when due in transmitting results, they are ready because they spoke about recharging batteries but we had in previous elections when it says it can’t recharge”.
The National Organizing Secretary of the party, Ambassador Suleiman Argungu, who aligned with Adamu, also kicked against the use of technology in next year’s election.
“As a rider to what the national chairman just said about INEC transmitting results directly during the coming election, apart from the issue of electricity that is unstable, a lot of the villages and communities bordering other countries for instance my state Kebbi that is bordering two nations, during the previous elections the network of Nigeria for all the networks, Glo, MTN, Airtel you can’t get them.
“If you want to get them you have to use the number of the other countries to reach them. So, during election, I don’t see how transmission of result will work. I see it coming.”
