Guber Poll: 3,817 BVAS recovered from flood in Edo – INEC

Ahead of the September 21, 2024 Governorship election in Edo State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it recovered 3,817 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) from flood.

Newspot reports that voters’ enrollment machines, vehicles, among others were destroyed at the Edo State headquarters of the Commission in Benin City as a result of heavy downpour on Friday, May 24, 2024.

The downpour which submerged the premises of the commission damaged Voters’ enrollment machines already configured for the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), movable and immovable items, including vehicles parked at the premises, as well as office furniture and equipment.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the State, Dr Anugbum Onuoha disclosed this on Wednesday during the commission’s stakeholders’ meeting on the state governorship election in Benin City.

According to him, “we tested all BVAs after the flood to confirm all ports and hardware features are in order. 3,817 BVAs were recovered from the flood. We also received BVAs from neighbouring states for the conduct of the election.”

Advertisement

He said the BVAS have been charged to ensure that the battery life lasts during the election, while charging of power banks for power back up have also been completed.

He, however, appealed to all stakeholders to join the commission in mobilizing voters who have collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to come out en-masse to vote for the party and candidate of their choice.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu said a total of 2,629,025 eligible voters registered to vote during the election.

Yakubu stated that the commission would in the next few days publish the detailed breakdown of PVCs collected for each of the 4,519 polling units across the state.

He also stated that all uncollected PVCs would be mopped up from the 18 Local Government Areas and warehoused in the Central Bank of Nigeria until after the governorship election.