INEC To Stop Storing Sensitive Materials With CBN

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that it would no longer store sensitive electoral materials in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this at a symposium tagged, “The Electorate: A Conversation on Elections in Nigeria,” held at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, at the weekend.
Yakubu also said that in the interim, the CBN would no longer be in charge of election materials beginning with the Ekiti state governorship election.
Prior to this new development, sensitive election materials such as ballot papers, results sheets and braille ballot guide for visually-impaired persons, among others, are usually stored with the CBN during elections.
The new development followed the controversy surrounding the interest of the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, to contest the 2023 presidential election under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We are not going to use the CBN for Ekiti elections. The materials will be moved from our headquarters in Abuja to the airport and then to our state offices”, Yakubu stated.
Meanwhile, ahead of the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti, INEC has detected 47, 633 voter double registration on its portal.
The Commission averred that such people would have their registration invalidated to prevent double voting during election, using the Bimodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS) invented to sanitise its registers.
Head, Department of Information and Communication Technology, Titilayo Oderinde, made the revelation in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, during a one-day training workshop organised for journalists in preparation for the governorship poll.
Explaining the BVAS application and its significance to the credibility of elections, Oderinde said no individual could exercise double franchise during election with the help of the ICT innovation.
“During the just concluded continuous voter registration exercise declared by INEC for intending voters to update their registration, a total of 124,963 persons registered in Ekiti.
“But it will marvel you that when the number was subjected to BVAS scrutiny, a total of 47,633 were discovered to have registered twice and got expunged from the register.
“Though, the commission was lenient, in that only one of the double registrations was struck out, leaving one for the voter to exercise his/her franchise”, Oderinde said.