By Frank Ulom
Several voters are still waiting to cast their votes as some Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) fail to respond in the Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State.
CONVERSEER gathered that the BVAS at Polling Unit 2, Ward 10 and Polling Unit 21, Ward 12 in Calabar South Local Government Area and some of the Polling Units at Lemna and other parts of Calabar Municipal Local Government were experiencing some technical and manmade issues.
That of Polling Unit 21, Ward 12 (UNICAL Staff School) in Calabar South, our Reporter noticed had network issue but was later rectified when a voter volunteered his mobile hotspot for the BVAS machine.
At about 12:31pm, Polling Unit 2, Ward 10 (Lutheran Primary School, Atu By Webber) in Calabar South, the BVAS machine was not capturing – both faces and fingerprints.
One of the INEC ad-hoc staff who spoke under anonymity told CONVERSEER that “the BVAS was not capturing the faces, neither the fingerprints of the voters. Each time we try, it will display ‘invalid verification’ – we have returned the BVAS to the INEC officer at UNICAL Main Gate, Etta Agbor”.
Meanwhile, at Lemna, Calabar Municipality some of the BVAS were experiencing network connectivity issues.
This technical incident left voters with worries that they are going to be disenfranchised.
When CONVERSEER visited the INEC office at Etta Agbor (UNICAL Main Gate) at about 1pm, an INEC staff said they are having BVAS issues across and have been fixing them.
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“Currently, as I speak, we have fixed 8 BVAS, many are still coming and we are still fixing. Most of the issues are manmade, some of the handlers don’t know how to use it, so, in the process, they will enter a wrong command but everything is in place.
“For the affected Polling Units, we will extend the time of voting, everyone will vote”, the INEC staff said.
CONVERSEER further gathered that there are 828 registered voters at Polling Unit 2, Ward 10 alone in Calabar South.
When contacted on the phone, the spokesperson of the INEC in Cross River State, Tonia Nwobi did not take or return her calls.
Nigerians take to the poll today, Saturday, February 25, 2023, to elect their President and National Assembly (Senators and House of Representatives) leaders.
