NBA urges INEC to fix BVAS, remove corrupt officials

The Nigerian Bar Association has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to fix all bugs or glitches that affected the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the results viewing portal and other challenges during the presidential and federal parliamentary elections.
“The NBA urges INEC to ensure that all bugs or glitches in the BVAS machines and other election technology are fixed and improved,“ NBA said in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Akorede Habeeb-Lawal.
NBA identified other challenges: insecurity at polling units, violent attacks on voters and officials, voter intimidation, and snatching and destroying ballot boxes.
Also, it charged INEC to exclude its staff engaged in malpractices during the February 25 polls from participating in the March 11 governorship and state assemblies elections.
“All INEC staff, including collation and returning officers, with proven cases of misconduct in the February 25 elections should be excluded from the March 11 elections,“ it said.
The association urged the inspector general of police, Usman Baba, to ensure the timely deployment of police officers for the March 11 elections. It also called on political parties to educate their members and supporters on the need to eschew all actions violating the Electoral Act.
The NBA commended Nigerians for their resilience and perseverance in carrying out their civic duties during the presidential and national assembly elections.
The association said that findings from their observers indicated that only a quarter of the electorate, representing 27.1 per cent, were impressed with the conduct of the elections.
“The majority of the voters representing 64.6 per cent, said they are ‘somewhat satisfied’,“ it said, noting that its observers found that only 8.2 per cent of the electorate rated the election “poor” or “very poor.”
The NBA Election Working Group deployed over 1,000 INEC-accredited observers drawn from 128 branches of the association to monitor elections across the 36 states and the FCT.
(NAN)
We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.
More from Peoples Gazette

Politics
Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku
“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

Sport
IWD: Fame Foundation hosts annual football tournament
The event themed ‘Generation Equality International Football Tournament 2023’ was held at the Area 3 football pitch in Abuja.

Abuja
Revenue: AMAC task force commences shutdown of defaulting Abuja hotels
The chairman said the council had followed the law accordingly by serving the defaulting hoteliers 14 days demand notice.

Diaspora
UAE ignores Buhari’s plea, maintains indefinite visa ban on Nigerians
The United Arab Emirates has disregarded the pleas of President Muhammadu Buhari to lift a visa ban slammed on Nigerian nationals since October 2022.

Economy
CBN releases guidelines for open banking
The guidelines also stipulate Consent Management, whereby consent of customers is required before their data can be obtained for open banking products and services.

Port Harcourt
ANAP poll projects PDP’s Fubara to win Rivers governorship
Eleven per cent proposed to vote for Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who fell in second place, adding that Tonye Cole of the APC candidate was third with 10 per cent.

States
Benue: Court orders removal of Labour deputy governorship candidate from INEC list
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgement on Wednesday, also stopped Mr Onyiloyi from further parading himself as the deputy governorship candidate of LP in the state for Saturday’s poll.