Ahead of the February 21 Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday conducted a mock accreditation exercise across the territory, with its Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, describing the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as a perfected “game changer” for electoral integrity.

Leading a high-powered delegation that included National Commissioners and the FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Amupitan toured several polling units, including NIPOST in Area 10 Garki, Government Secondary School Wuse Zone 3, LEA Primary School Ushafa, and Sagwari Primary School in Dutse.

The exercise was designed to pressure-test the commission’s operational readiness and the technical efficiency of the upgraded BVAS devices.

Speaking to journalists during the field assessment, Prof. Amupitan emphasised that the commission was determined to iron out technical wrinkles well before the actual polls.

“We don’t want to use the main election as a guinea pig. This is basically to test operational preparedness… and our major target and focus here is the functionality of the BVAS, which for us is a game changer.”

The Chairman expressed satisfaction with the machine’s speed, noting that accreditation was taking five seconds or less per voter.

During a simulation at one of the units, the system successfully blocked a repeat accreditation attempt, proving its effectiveness against double voting.

“With this technology, there is no way you can be accredited twice. There’s no way you can vote twice,” he affirmed.

Beyond technical hardware, the INEC chief assessed human resource preparedness at the Government Secondary School in Area 10, where Supervising Presiding Officers SPOs are undergoing intensive training.

He confirmed that non-sensitive materials have already been deployed to the various Area Councils