The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has revealed that it has abolished the time frame between the accreditation of voters and the voting proper.
According to INEC, voters will now be allowed to vote immediately after they are accredited at their various polling units in the 2023 general elections.
Daily Post recalls that in previous elections, accreditation used to take place in the morning, while accredited voters return to vote later at noon.
It was gathered in most polling units that some accredited voters failed to return to vote, creating a difference between the number of accredited voters and the total votes cast.
Speaking on TVC’s Your Views on Monday, November 14, 2022, INEC spokesperson, Festus Okoye, said voters would now be allowed to cast their votes immediately after they must have been successfully accredited through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, only.
“We no longer do differential accreditation and voting. We do simultaneous accreditation and voting. The 2023 elections, it is going to be simultaneous accreditation and voting. We are not going to have a differential timeframe in terms of accreditation and voting,” Okoye said.
He maintained that all voters must be accredited through the BVAS, adding that the machine would be used to scan the results and send same electronically from the polling unit to the INEC portal.
How 8 Hoodlums Scaled Fence Of INEC Office Compound, Set Building On Fire
Some suspected hoodlums, in the early hours of Thursday, burnt an office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, at Iyana Mortuary lll in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Punch reports that the hoodlums, numbering about eight, scaled the perimeter fence, jumped into the premises, and set the INEC building on fire from the back.
It was gathered that the hoodlums after invading the premises, soaked loaves of bread with petrol and threw same into the building at different angles to light up the INEC office.
It was further gathered that a security guard at the facility identified as Azeez Hamzat, had made a distress call to the police around 1am alerting them on the fire incident.
The police from Ibara division reportedly mobilised detectives to the scene and later contacted men of fire service in the state, who raced to the scene to put out the fire.
When contacted, the Ogun INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Niyi Ijalaye confirmed the incident, describing it as shocking.
The REC said the situation was still being assessed.
He said “It is correct that our office was set on fire. The police are investigating. I do not know what to say. I’m in shock myself.
“We called the police and other security agencies at night. The fire brigade put the situation under control. The level of damage is still being assessed.
“It is very shocking and untoward. The security agencies are doing their very best. We are meeting again later today to come up with other strategies (toward securing our facilities).”
A source in the INEC hinted that the store, the Registration Area Officer’s office, and the conference room were affected by the inferno.
The source also told our correspondent that non-sensitive materials were also affected by the fire.
“No life was lost and no injury was sustained in the fire,” the source disclosed.
Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, could not be reached for comments as of the time of filing this report.
Source: Daily Post
