….Says Commission has introduced facial biometrics
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu has said that about 95 Million Nigerians are ready to excerise their franchise in the 2023 election.
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Professor Yakubu said this in his keynote address at the 6th Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) which was held today at Sheraton hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
Yakubu who spoke in the theme of the Conference “2023 Elections : Managing the Process for Credible Outcome” commended GOCOP for choosing an appropriate theme at this period.
The implication of this Yakubu said is that the General Election is 140 days from now to election day. He said “The implication is that because election is planned with the total number of registered voters, then over half a billion papers must be ready for 2023 elections. Each time Nigeria go to the polls, it’s more than conducting election for the whole of West African Region” said Yakubu.
The Commission, Prof. Yakubu revealed has introduced many new innovations which is supported by the deployment of appropriate technology.
His words “Ranging from voters registration to voter accreditation; the deployment of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) with its dual fingerprints and facial biometric accreditation processes. This has ensured that only genuine voters are accredited to vote during the election. This is due to our commitment and lessons learnt in the previous elections” said Yakubu.
Speaking further,
“In addition to the fingerprint, we’ve introduced facial biometrics authentication. Hence, if the fingerprint fails, then we’ll use the facial biometrics and this works perfectly in most recent election” he said.
In his address, the Founder, Trustee, Centre for Alternative Policy Perspective and Strategy, (CAPPS) Dr Umar Ardo, said the new technology put in place by INEC will eliminate multiple voting, irregular voting among others. “This can be attributed to stability in the leadership of the INEC Chairman” said Dr. Ardo.
Ardo however charged politicians to be of good conduct and accept that election is not a do or die affair. “If election is acceptable to be credible, politicians should behave themselves and accept the results when it’s announced” said Dr. Ardo.
The role of Police officers in electoral security management according to the former Inspector General of Police, Dr. Solomon Arase cannot be over-emphasized. He however call for synergy between the the security agencies in order to have a credible elections.
“Managers of communication desk for police should be people who are knowledgeable. I also urge govt to arrest offenders and jail them to serve as a deterrent, we need to set examples” said Dr. Arase.
Speaking on why the theme for this year’s GOCON Conference was chosen, the Chairperson, GOCON, Mrs. Maureen Chigbo said steps such as the recruitment of ad-hoc electoral staff, reprinting of ballot papers, and their deployment to various states during elections are all important processes that will determine the outcome of an election whether it will be credible or not. “Any aspect of this if not handled well could undermine the electoral Act. That is why as we journey towards the 2023 election, bearing in mind the concerns of our people, we felt that as a body of watchdogs of the society, we must use our platforms to better educate and inform the public about the state of affairs of the election as it is today and in future” said Chigbo.
