The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that political thugs have changed tactics of disrupting election as the focus of the thugs now is the newly introduced Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine, a electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters.
The Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu said in Abuja Saturday’s afternoon while briefing the media at the International Conference Centre that reports from states across the country have shown that political thugs have designed other ways of disrupting election by invading the polling units, cart away BVAS machines, unlike in the past when the target was the ballot boxes.
Siting cases of polling units where BVAS have been snatched during the ongoing presidential election, Yakubu said there were cases in a local government in Delta State where two BVAS were snatched, while in Katsina State, six BVAS were snatched, but three have been recovered by security agents.
He said where such cases happened, INEC has some spared BVAS to be used.
On late arrival of INEC officials to polling units reported in some areas across the country, the Chairman assured that the plan is to have every eligible voter, who are on the queue as at 2:30pm when voting supposed to officially closed, the opportunity to exercise their franchise.
