INEC commences mock accreditation ahead Osun governorship election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday commenced a two-day mock accreditation in Osun, ahead of the July 16 governorship election in the state.

Some correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria, who visited selected polling units in Osun Central Senatorial District, report that the process was seamless, fast and without hitches with the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

At Polling Unit 5, Salvation Army School, Osogbo, registered voters that turned out for the mock accreditation exercise were promptly attended to and accredited within 20 to 45 seconds.

The accreditation was done with the use of BVAS machines, with either the fingerprints or facial recognition of the voters for the accreditation.

One of the INEC officials from Abuja, who spoke with NAN under the condition of anonymity, said that 1, 256 voters were registered at the polling unit.

According to the official, majority of them turned up by 8:00 a.m. when the exercise started.

“We pasted the registered voters’ list for people to check for their names, copy out their number on the list, which we searched on the BVAS.

“The BVAS already has the names of registered voters at this unit programmed on it.

“So, using their number makes the accreditation process faster, and in less than 30 seconds, we are done with a voter,” the official said.

Similarly, at CAC Grammar School Polling Unit in Osogbo, there was reasonable turnout of voters for the mock accreditation.

Political party agents, who were at the polling unit, were seen calling their supporters and mobilising them to come out and participate in the process.

INEC Hired Technical Officer, Mr Anthony Itodo, who spoke to NAN correspondent, said they the accreditation which started 8:00 a.m. would end by 2:30 p.m.

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Itodo noted that 62 voters were registered at the polling unit, while the process was going smoothly with 12 voters already accredited.

At Olorunsogo Community Primary School, in Egbedore Local Government Area of the state, which has two polling units; unit 12 and unit 1, voters were also seen getting accredited by INEC officials.

An INEC official, Mrs Bose Aderogba, who spoke on the process, said the accreditation would be conducted from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to ensure everyone that turns up was attended to.

Aderogba said the first polling unit 12 had 57 registered voters and that the polling unit 1 had 2,195 registered voters.

NAN observed that the exercise was without hitches at the polling units.

NAN also reports that the mock accreditation exercise will take place between Monday and Tuesday, in six local government areas, two registration areas/wards across the three senatorial districts in the state.