Cynthia Ezegwu
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has hailed the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as a major breakthrough in Nigeria’s electoral process, declaring that identity theft and multiple voting have effectively been eliminated.
Speaking at the 2025 Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibitions in Abuja, INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan, SAN, represented by National Commissioner May Agbamuche-Mbu, described BVAS as a “foolproof mechanism” for voter verification.
According to a statement signed by the INEC Chief Press Secretary, Dayo Oketola, Amupitan said the biometric safeguards embedded in BVAS ensure that only eligible voters are accredited at polling units, eliminating voter impersonation.
Using data from the recent Anambra Governorship election, the INEC chairman noted that 6,879 BVAS devices performed excellently, with more than 99 per cent of polling unit results uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal on election day. He said the technology guarantees that figures announced at polling units match those visible to the public.
Amupitan credited the Electoral Act 2022, particularly Section 47(2), for providing the legal backing that has elevated digital devices from administrative tools to statutorily protected pillars of Nigeria’s elections. This, he said, has strengthened public trust and allowed INEC to innovate with confidence.
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While acknowledging progress, he admitted that connectivity challenges remain, particularly in 176,846 polling units located in remote areas. He assured that INEC is collaborating with the Nigerian Communications Commission and service providers to address these gaps.
The chairman also emphasized that INEC has no plans to return to manual election procedures, describing them as vulnerable to human interference. “The gains we have recorded are too significant to reverse,” he said, reiterating the commission’s commitment to retaining and enhancing BVAS and IReV systems.
Amupitan concluded that the once-common practice of “ghost voting” has been eradicated and that technology now ensures every eligible voter is accurately verified, every vote properly counted, and results transparently shared.
Nigeria’s transition to technology-driven elections follows years of public concern over ballot stuffing, voter impersonation, and opaque result collation. Since the passage of the Electoral Act 2022, BVAS and IReV have become central to the country’s electoral architecture, used in successive off-cycle governorship elections and hailed as essential tools for transparent and credible elections.