A story was published on Instagram by a user @mazitundeednut claiming that the INEC chairman made a statement saying “ Flooding In Our Edo State Office Has Affected 4000 BVAS Machines”
This story had gathered about 15,262 comments and about 49,304 likes at the time of making this verification.
The Edo state Governorship election is slated to take place on the 21st of September 2024 as stated on the website of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS machine is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters using the voters’ fingerprints.
This is done to show that voters are actually eligible to vote at a particular polling unit.
On May 25, 2024, INEC gave a press release regarding the flooding of Edo State INEC headquarters.
Searching through the internet for the alleged statement made by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, other Media sources such as West Africa Weekly, Politics Nigeria among others also carried the story,
It was gathered that at the induction retreat for the new resident electoral commissioners, the INEC chairman categorically stated in the video captured by TVC News that “ over 4000 Machines were affected, we deployed our technical staff, we have already recovered over 3500 of those machines and since this is an off-cycle election, if we are not able to recover the machines for Edo State, we will call for additional support from neighbouring states”.
Screenshot of TVCNews Youtube Channels
In light of these, the verdict of this claim is True
