By Enyichukwu Enemanna
In response to the delay in uploading election results in its portal, the Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured that the development has nothing to do with intrusion of its systems by external forces.
INEC says all results, including those not yet uploaded to the portal, remain safe on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS and will soon be uploaded.
According to the commission in a statement on Sunday by the National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, the problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, state elections to one for managing nationwide general elections.
The commission assured Nigerians that results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
Nigeria held a general election on Saturday to elect members of parliament and a new president as the incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari bows out May.
“The Commission is aware of challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady.
“The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process,” INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said on Sunday.
Okoye says it is not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.
“Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured.
“Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.
“We also wish to assure Nigerians that results from the polling units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal.
“These results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“While we fully appreciate the concerns of the public on this situation and welcome various suggestions that we have received from concerned Nigerians, it is important to avoid statements and actions that can heat up the polity at this time or promote disaffection towards the Commission.
“We take full responsibility for the problems and regret the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties and the electorate,” he added.
