Ondo: BVAS Does Not Capture Elderly People

Mrs. Angele Oshogwe, the current officer at Ondo’s governorship election stated that the BVAS machine failed to capture the faces of elderly voters.

The current officer handled Poling Unit 19, Ward 12 Olamojuba in Ondo West LGA and disclosed that she complained to the respective authorities concerning the matter but she got a non-favorable response stating that the areas concerned were not in her jurisdiction.

She further stated that the elderly had been waiting patiently to vote for a very long time but were unable to vote at the end. According to Oshogwe, the BVAS might have been closed before the voting ended.

The officer complaint brought the reaction of the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Otekanmi who noted that the commission was aware of the issue in “very limited” polls.

In his words:

“We are aware that in very limited cases, a few elderly voters couldn’t be accredited by the BVAS at first attempt. But, in subsequent attempts, the problem was resolved.

A Presiding Officer in one polling unit (PU) out of 3,933 PUs in Ondo State is not in the position to say how widespread a technical problem is.

From the reports at our disposal, so far, the BVAS is performing satisfactorily. It is not unusual for technical issues to occur in a major off-season election like the one we are conducting today.

We anticipated it and made adequate arrangements to respond to any type of challenge.”

Mrs Agnes Olapade who is an elderly person was also affected by this problem reported that she was very disappointed starting she was not able to vote due to the error from the BVAS machine.

Mrs Agnes further stated that she had been with other elderly voters since 8:00 AM without all of them being able to vote. Meanwhile, she claimed to have voted in previous elections without any issue from her or the BVAS.

According to her, she voted in the previous elections without any difficulty.