Osun REC admits politicians, INEC employees went by BVAS

The Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Osun state, Dr. Mutiu Agboke, has said that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System did not allow over-voting in the state’s latest governorship elections.

Agboke, speaking at the Oluwo palace of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi, while visiting the royal father on Tuesday, also said the Election Petition Tribunal’s verdict that overturned the result of the July 16 poll in the state, exposed how overvoting can occur.

The REC, in a video clip of the speech he gave at the Oluwo palace obtained Wednesday in Osogbo, also said that some politicians in collusion with INEC staff may have deliberately evaded BVAS during the polls.

He said: “It was BVAS that helped INEC expose those who outvoted on election day. So it was not the BVAS that caused the problem, that should be fixed. Based on that statement, we have identified some shortcomings of the politicians, voters, our staff and it is our responsibility to ensure that we close all these gaps so that the voices of the Osun people can speak for them.

“Politicians and our employees have deliberately circumvented the BVAS. It was this BVAS that exposed overvoting in the Osun elections. So with this verdict of the tribunal we know how overvoting can happen. We are going to turn our spotlight on those employees and I can assure you that we all need to own the process together. This way we can correct these anomalies.”

Agboke spoke similarly at a stakeholder meeting with presidents of political parties in Osun State at the INEC state office in Osogbo on Wednesday.

“So I want to tell the Osun people that the overvote issue has not been orchestrated by BVAS. We did not use BVAS to vote or cast our vote. Our vote was manual voting; overvote was caused by fraudulent people coming to vote on Election Day. They are criminally inclined.

“Let’s stop all these blame games on INEC, let’s open our eyes very well to the election. Beware of our employees who may want to conspire with politicians. We all need to own the process together.”