INEC argued that the use of electoral technology, such as the BVAS, makes the alleged manipulation claim impossible.
By Kehinde Okeowo
Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has described allegations that it manipulated results at the Kuroko Health Centre polling unit in Yangoji Ward, Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as untrue.
The commission dismissed the allegations in a press statement issued to the media, stating the claims were false and misleading.
INEC added that the controversy followed online reports alleging that a political party scored 1,219 votes in a polling unit with only 345 registered voters and 213 accredited voters during Saturday’s Area Council election.
The commission explained that the discrepancy stemmed from a mistake made by the Presiding Officer while recording the results.
According to the statement, the officer initially “recorded 122 for the APC” but discovered an error after tallying the ballots.
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The federal electoral body noted that after a recount conducted in public, the figure was corrected to 121 votes. It added that the officer “cancelled the ‘2’ at the end and inserted a ‘1’ in front of the cancelled ‘2’ to make it 121.”
INEC stated that the corrected result was the figure officially uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and used during collation at the ward and Area Council levels.
It stressed that “the official result recorded and uploaded from the said polling unit shows that the political party in question scored 121 votes, not 1,219 as alleged on social media,” adding that party agents present at the polling unit confirmed and signed the final result.
The commission further explained that its electoral technology makes the alleged manipulation impossible.
It stated that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) validates entries to ensure total votes do not exceed accredited voters and automatically flags over-voting.
INEC said that if the disputed figure had been entered, “the BVAS device would have rejected the entry instantly,” noting that the number of accredited voters remained 213 and all recorded votes were consistent with that figure.
