INEC Confirms Readiness for Osun Governorship Poll, Defends BVAS Performance
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is prepared for the August 15, 2026, off-cycle election, while identifying key areas that require attention as the state heads to the...
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is prepared for the August 15, 2026, off-cycle election, while identifying key areas that require attention as the state heads to the polls.
In separate interviews on Arise Television on Monday, INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, and Head of Information Communication and Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, said the commission had intensified efforts to ensure the election is free and fair. They also acknowledged the tense pre-election atmosphere and concerns about voter desperation.
Mrs Eta-Messi said that although tension is rising ahead of the election, with citizens and politicians eager to win, INEC has begun engaging key stakeholders with crucial roles in the process.
She added that the commission had tested its technology, conducted a mock accreditation exercise, and worked with transport unions and security agencies to ensure election workers and materials reach polling units promptly and safely.
“For us, we have done several layers of engagements with critical stakeholders. Recently, the Chairman of the Commission was in Osun State with his management team and other senior commission members to further engage with traditional rulers. They attended the signing of the Peace Accord, which involved all political parties, and conducted rigorous integrity tests on INEC’s technological devices.
“The mock accreditation was also conducted on the last day of the readiness visit, basically just to be sure. And then there was engagement and meetings with members of the Transport Unions, who play a critical role with regard to ensuring that men and materials are taken to the polling units on time so that elections can commence as and when due. We had meetings with the security architecture in the state—the ICCES—which plays a critical role with regard to ensuring that men and materials are safe again. As I mentioned earlier, Osun is actually tense at the moment, and so a lot relies on the shoulders of the security personnel, particularly the police, which is the lead agency, to ensure that citizens of Osun State feel safe to turn out to vote on election day,” she said.
Mrs Eta-Messi further outlined the measures INEC has taken to guarantee security on election day, stating that the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) had carried out risk mapping to pinpoint volatile areas and direct the deployment of security personnel to areas in need of more protection.
“Let me start with the ICCES; that is the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security. They are doing a lot. You have the Commission and the Nigeria Police Force as lead agencies under the ICCES structure. The NSA is the co-chair at the national level, but at the state level, you have the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the Commissioner of Police.
“They have done a lot of security planning and coordination, risk mapping, noting again that Osun, as I mentioned earlier, is tense, and the environment is volatile. Some areas are volatile, so those areas have been mapped, and that would guide planning, coordination, and deployment of security to those areas that actually require more protection to ensure that citizens do not feel threatened when they turn out to vote. So you have the risk mapping, and you have the deployment which is guided by the outcome of the risk mapping that has been done so that citizens will feel safe to turn out, participate, and exercise their democratic franchise,” she assured.
On PVC collection, Eta-Messi said INEC extended the deadline and moved collection to the Registration Area level because of the state’s low collection rate, making it easier for eligible voters to obtain their cards.
She said the commission would have a clearer picture of the total number of PVCs collected in the coming days, adding that the figures would be available before the election and would guide result management, including decisions on the margin of lead and any possible rerun.
“Collection of PVCs ended last week. Recall that Osun is the first state where we’re going to deploy or introduce the use of the downloadable PVCs, and that ended. The deadline for the printing of those who qualify… because the law provides that you must have applied if you have a damaged, defaced, or lost PVC and you require another one, you must have applied to the Commission 90 days before the election. So those who applied had the leverage of printing out their downloadable copies of the PVC.
“That was why, during the readiness visit, the Chairman extended the date for collection. Taking into consideration the fact that there were also people eligible to print out the downloadable copy—which ended at midnight yesterday—at the end of the day, all of those will be computed together for us to have a clearer picture. It was because of the dismal percentage that it was extended and taken to the Registration Area (RA) level. The complaint has always been that collection at the LGA level is a challenge to citizens at the grassroots to come out to the local government to pick up their PVCs.
“So, the extension was given at the RA level so that they do not need to go far to pick up their cards. In the next couple of days, I think we’ll have a clearer picture as to the true percentage of PVCs that have been collected, because it is that data that will guide the management of results at the end of the day when we’re looking at the margin of lead, if there is a need for a rerun. It will be important that we have the exact number of PVCs collected. We can’t have it after the election. We need the statistics before the election, because that will guide us in the management of our results. So it can’t be after the election; it’s before the election,” she stressed.
Addressing concerns about possible violence at polling units during the Osun governorship election, the INEC official said the commission had identified potential flashpoints and was working with security agencies to deploy sufficient personnel to vulnerable areas.
“The volatile or vulnerable areas, as I mentioned earlier, have already been mapped, and there will be more security deployed to those areas. There are potential flashpoints, and so the Commission is aware of that. The Commission has drawn up its plan with the security architecture to ensure that adequate security is deployed. The military is on the ground to give the back-end and outer-ring support in areas where we suspect that there may be an outbreak of violence.
“Basically, plans have been put in place to protect people in those areas which have been mapped out to ensure that their lives and properties of the Commission are safe and that people feel safe to come out to vote.
“So there will be adequate security in those areas where there is potential fear of an outbreak of violence. The security will be on the ground to do their jobs. You mentioned earlier that INEC is not the police, and that is true. We cannot arrest,” she concluded.
Speaking on BVAS functionality ahead of the election and concerns over technical issues during the August 1, 2026 mock accreditation, Dr Lawrence Bayode, INEC’s Director of ICT, said the challenges were not unusual and had been resolved.
Speaking about the functionality of the BVAS, the INEC head of ICT maintained that the commission has further strengthened the security of the technology to ensure its optimal performance by setting the verification gadget, which is built with Android 10, with a further security upgrade to ensure its perfect function.
“We are also deploying our own security to secure the BVAS system. Apart from the security that comes with that version. You know, it’s not just easy for us to begin to upgrade from the version that we deployed on the BVAS when it was first procured in 2021.
“Yes, we procured those BVAS devices with Android version 10. And you know, the specification then was for it to run on Android version 10. That was the way, and at the time we were comfortable with that version. So, if you want to upgrade now to a higher version, then a lot of things; and it means that you have to upgrade a lot of things. You have to upgrade the RAM. You have to upgrade a lot of things so that it does not slow down the system.
Addressing the position that glitches experienced during the mock accreditation amount to the failure of the exercise and the possibility of it recurring during the actual election, Dr Bayode insisted that the exercise remains a successful activity for the commission, maintaining that the issue encountered during the August 1 mock accreditation exercise was a problem relating to the similarity threshold used to configure the system for the exercise.
He went on to say that the mock exercise was held to test the functionality and performance of its systems ahead of the Osun governorship election, which is scheduled for Saturday. He stated that the commission purposefully established a high similarity threshold to ensure that the facial recognition system could accurately distinguish between legitimate voters and others.
He further defended the glitches that the operating system used on the BVAS devices, following concerns raised that some of the machines were running an outdated version of Android, and the exercise was done to test the functionality of the technology and to correct the loopholes discovered.
“What happened on that day was a threshold and the similarity score of those who registered or who received their PVC in 2011. The similarity score was the threshold that we set, which was too high for them. And if they have done revalidation, we will not be having this issue; we know that we are running on Android version 10. Yes, security has improved on Android, the current Android that we have, because that is what the Android open source does; at least they increase security on it.
“But we are not relying solely on the security of the operating system. We are also deploying our own security on the BIVAS that ensures that our BIVAS is secured. So, the mock did not fail. It worked fine, and that is what is expected when you carry out a mock exercise. You are carrying out a mock exercise to test the system, preparing it for the day of the election. And that is what the commission has done, and we have seen this, and it has been corrected. So, the mock did not fail. At the end of that day, we were able to accredit 1,000-plus people who came out on the day. So, it did not fail.
Dr Bayode also dismissed claims that using Android 10 automatically made the devices insecure, saying INEC was confident as long as the accreditation and result-transmission applications functioned properly.
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