The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has been chastised by the Labour Party for his stance on using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the 2023 general election.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that Adamu was concerned about using BVAS and other technology to electronically transmit results in next year’s general elections.
On Wednesday, Adamu raised the issue with a Commonwealth delegation on the 2023 general election in his office at the party secretariat.
However, in a statement released on Thursday, APC Spokesman Felix Morka stated that the ruling party would never oppose the use of technology in the 2023 election.
Morka claimed that during Wednesday’s meeting, the party’s national chairman was quoted out of context regarding his position on using BVAS and other technology.
In a conversation with The Punch on Thursday, LP Spokesman Abayomi Arabambi argued that Adamu’s stance was a subtle strategy aimed at putting pressure on the electoral umpire to throw out the BVAS.
Arabambi claimed that the statement claiming Adamu recanted is proof that the APC is afraid of losing the 2023 election.
He said;
It is obvious that the APC is jittery. This is a strategy to put pressure on INEC but it is not going to work. The APC is not the only party contesting in the 2023 election. For the fact that they claimed the man recanted is enough to indicate that they are afraid they will lose the election.
I expect that the man was in his right senses before he complained about the BVAS, which is the only solution to election rigging. Even INEC has affirmed that there is no going back.
Is it only the APC that wants to run for election in Nigeria? They are not the owner of the country and the electoral system. They came in through the electoral system and will be booted out through the same process. As far as we are concerned, whether Adamu recanted or not is an afterthought.
SDP Reacts
Rufus Aiyenigba, National Publicity Secretary of the Social Democratic Party, urged INEC to stick to its decision to use technology to transmit election results in 2023.
He said that the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states demonstrated how important the BVAS is to the electoral system.
INEC has demonstrated its non-partisanship in the past few years and the SDP will continue to support the commission, particularly its use of technology to improve the conduct of our elections. As a party, we are prepared for the elections. Any individual or group mounting pressure on INEC is an enemy of our democracy, he said.