By All Means, Safeguard BVAS Data, Says APC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to take all reasonable steps to safeguard the information contained in the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

The Party’s response comes only hours after INEC postponed the governorship and state house of assembly elections, which were originally planned for March 11 to March 18, in order to reconfigure the BVAS machines.

In a statement released on Thursday, Felix Morka, the APC’s national publicity secretary, also said that the Party would follow the Commission’s ruling.

Despite its assurances that the data from the presidential and National Assembly elections will be properly backed up on its cloud facilities, Morka said, “We urge INEC to take all reasonable steps to maintain and protect the integrity of the extracted data from BVAS as it has committed to do before court.

“Moreover, we urge INEC to take advantage of the delay of the poll to correct any flaws or problems found in the presidential election in order to prevent a repeat in the election on March 18th.

“Even as presidential candidates and their political parties investigate and exercise their constitutional freedom to contest or defend the results of the presidential and National Assembly elections, we must keep in mind the overriding responsibility we bear to abstain from behavior and action that could jeopardize the peace in our nation or put the ability of INEC to conduct the upcoming elections in jeopardy.

“Our candidate, now-President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, won the presidential election in a free, fair, and mostly compliant manner with the Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines for the 2023 General Election. He was the clear favorite of Nigerians.

We express our gratitude for the extension of our presidential mandate and call on all Nigerians to continue supporting our great party and its candidates in the future elections.