OVER 1.4 MILLION AD HOC PERSONNEL WILL BE TRAINED IN THE USE OF BVAS – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said that more than 1.4 million ad hoc personnel will be educated in the use of Bimodal Voter Registration Systems (BVAS) for the Nigerian general elections in 2023.

INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye revealed this during an appearance on Channels TV’s “2022 In Retrospect, an End-Of-Year Special.”

Furthermore, the Commission stated that it had enough BVAS to conduct elections in all 176,846 polling locations across the country.

“We want to teach our ad hoc personnel for a longer period of time so that we don’t have people not knowing how to utilize the BVAS and blaming it on technology,” he said.

“The BVAS, which we predicted would be a game changer in this election, is already in place. And I want to certify that we have a sufficient number of BVAS to conduct elections in all 176,846 polling places across the country.”

“We are also gathering the names and contact information for those who will serve as ad hoc personnel. “We will engage and train over 1.4 million ad hoc employees for the two polls, the national and state elections,” he stated.

Okoye also remarked that the commission’s processes and procedures are proceeding as anticipated, and Nigerians should expect a very good election in 2023.

“The people of this country should expect INEC to run a very good election. Conducting a very good election in terms of starting preparations for the 2023 general elections as soon as we finished the 2019 general election.

“As of today, our processes and procedures are proceeding as expected.”

Okoye stated that political parties were meant to have submitted the names, signatures, and personal information of their polling agents in regard to the national election by December 30, 2022.

He stated that they must submit the names, signatures, pictures, and contact information for their state election agents by January 6, 2023.

The INEC commissioner also stated that on January 12, 2023, INEC will disclose the official voter list, saying that “all of these things are going as planned and they will be completed on time.”