…After Nigeria nearly burn in February over glitch
…Judiciary became final arbiter
…States now await new governors
It is official. The much-controversial piece of technology that cost so many billions of Naira but caused so much heartbreak by refusing to transmit the much-expected results on February 25, 2023, has inexplicably woken up.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing (IReV) portal eventually
worked in the three states (Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa) where off-cycle elections took place Saturday.
Our correspondents who covered the election in the three states confirmed that the IReV worked
perfectly as results from many polling units spread across the states.
Read also: Results uploading in progress for off-cycle elections on IREV
Contrary to what transpired in last February presidential election, when the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines also
malfunctioned in many places, the gadgets also worked perfectly in the Saturday election.
The IReV and BVAS were to aid election transparency. In Bayelsa State for instance,
results were flying from the BVAS which doubles as a transmitter to snap the result sheets real time and send them to the INEC portal, the
IReV.
The inability of this technology to work or the failure to appropriately utilise the gadget in the presidential election threw the electoral process into chaos.
Reports of snatching of results, rewriting and mutilations were widespread in February.
The INEC said there was a glitch in the use of the technology.
Read also: Voter apathy, vote buying mar Imo Governorship election
Parties went to court to press for cancellation of the results on account of failure to transmit
to IReV but the Supreme Court backed the Presidential tribunal in ruling that INEC had the right to transmit with or without BVAS
into the IReV.
Now, INEC officials who said IReV would work this time around have been proved right. In
Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and many other communities, the results were transmitted by BVAS into the IReV.
The Bayelsa State INEC voter education and information head, Wilifred Ifogah, told some newsmen at about 1pm in the INEC office that IReV would definitely work. He said BVAS worked in most places and that they were fully optimistic that it would transmit live into the IReV.
Read also: EFCC nabs 14 for alleged vote buying in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi
He urged all those who had access to IReV to go ahead and view the results as they trickle in.
Another INEC source said vote-buying has become very attractive because the politicians
may have found it’s the only alternative. The source said votes now count, that is why they were buying and bidding. Vote now counts,
he said emphatically.
So far, it has been transmitting from many places in Bayelsa State but in some few places, thugs
snatched results and BVAS to stop it from transmitting results. The particular polling station witnessed by this Reporter was
thus: Ovom ward 1, unit 19, Yenagoa: PDP 81; APC 39; LP 0; ADC 1; NRM 1; INVALID 4. Total votes
cast 126. Some online networks are running the results, releasing up to six results so far, with the
ruling party leading by a wide margin.
Other polling units nearby also confirmed they sent their results.
Other journalists covering the state reported that BVAS or IReV worked.
In Kogi, our correspondent said it worked in Bassa, Dekina, Olamaboro and many other places.
Although there was a report of malfunction of the IReV in Owerri Municipal where one of our reporters covered, the technology was
deployed in other parts of the state.
Read also: Drama as INEC starts results collation in Imo 2 am
Eyebrows: Now, the flawless performance of
IReV without any reworking has elicited surprises and raised many eyebrows by those who wonder why the machine is working well
now that there is no threat from certain contestants.
BusinessDay gathered that many want to hear more from the INEC what really happened in February when hopes were high but turned
round to work now that Nigerians no longer cared and when many feel all hopes have been lost.
Many also argue that INEC must have fixed what stopped the IReV from working in February, but this should be explained to Nigerians to avoid INEC looking bad in the eyes of well-meaning Nigerians.
Meanwhile, the results have begun to trickle in as indigenes and residents of the three states anxiously await their new governors.
