Oyo INEC REC Engages Stakeholders On Mock Voters’ Verification Exercise In Ibadan •says over 800,000 PVCs still remain uncollected

By Our Reporter 

Oyo INEC REC Tella Rahmon has engaged stakeholders on mock voters exercise.

Naijanewshub.com.ng reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Oyo state has on Wednesday engaged various stakeholders ahead the forthcoming general elections.

While speaking at the state Headquaters of the commission in Agodi area of Ibadan, the state Resident Electoral Commission (REC) Dr. Adeniran Rahmon Tella maintained that the mock voters accreditation/verification exercise become necessary as the general elections is just 23 days ahead.

He maintained that the purpose of the stakeholders gathering is to inform the general public on the proposed mock voters’ accreditation/verification exercise in twelve(12) of the polling units in three of the Senatorial Districts of the state.

He said, ” As you are already aware, the commission has taken delivery of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines for the election in the state.”

“We have also tested each machine so as to ensure its functionality on election day, the essence of the mock exercise is therefore to conduct field tests across three Senatorial Districts in the state using twelve polling units at Oyo North, Oyo South, and Oyo senatorial Districts of the state.” Rahmon said.

While giving the breakdown of the exercise, the INEC Boss said, “The exercise is scheduled for Saturday 4th of February 2023 from 8am to 2:30pm accordingly in all affected LGAs and polling units in the state.

He further said, “I wish to appeal to registered voters in the affected polling units to appear on the scheduled date with their permanent voters cards (PVCs) for the mock exercise. No doubt the exercise will help to reassure the general public of the robustness of our system and to further strengthen our processes ahead of the general election in the state.”

“It should be noted that at the end of the exercise the 12 BVAS machines involved will be reconfigured before they are deployed for the general elections in the state. The commission is fully ready for the coming election as series of training are being conducted and will yet be conducted for both staff and ad-hoc staff members in order to have a seamless election in the state.”

“The Presidential/National assembly election will hold on 25th of February 2023, while that of the governorship and state House of Assembly elections will come up on 11th March, 2023 as scheduled.” The commission is to deploy technology for the conduct of the forthcoming elections through the use of BVAS for accreditation and verification of voters and uploading poling units results through INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) on Election day.”

“Collection of PVCs at the 33 INEC Offices has been further extended for 8 days with additional two hours which is expected to end on Sunday, 5th February 2023 starting from 9am to 5pm on daily basis, including Saturday and Sunday. As I speak to you we have so far distributed over 402,321 PVCs in the state.”

“We still have over 800,000 uncollected PVCs at our various 33 INEC local government area offices, I urge members of the public to have their PVCs collected today because their PVC is their power on election day.” Rahmon stressed.

Among stakeholders at the meeting are representatives of the European Union, the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), representative of the state commissioner of Police, NSCDC, Nigeria Army, and others.