Isaiah Davies Ijele, Media Director of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), recently claimed in a statement, that the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, is plotting with staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to manipulate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation (BVAS) device for the November 11, 2023 Governorship election.
According to the statement, which has been widely circulated on the instant messaging app, WhatsApp, the operation involves the reconfiguration and personalization of the BVAS devices.
In a post made on the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter), Ijele named some staff of the Commission attached with their mobile numbers, further claiming that they were lodged in the state’s government house since October 18, 2023.
Verification
The CDD War Room employed the use of Truecaller, an Open Source Intelligence Tool (OSINT) to verify the mobile numbers in the viral statement.
We observed that the names ascribed to the mobile numbers in the viral statement, did not match the names being displayed on Truecaller.
We used another caller identity tool and got different results, with no name ascribed to the first mobile number.
We also called the mobile numbers with the attempt to speak with the users. While the numbers ascribed to Egbunu and Adara were not connecting, our call to Ocholi’s number went through but the user did not pick up despite several attempts.
INEC’s Response
We found that shortly after the statement began gaining momentum on social media, INEC issued a statement, debunking the allegations.
The Commission pointed out that the three persons mentioned were not associated with the configuration of the BVAS machines and were “not even in Kogi State at the moment”.
According to INEC, “Nicholas Ocholi is on his duty post in our Ondo State office in Akure. Ibrahim Egbunu is attending to a very close family member hospitalised in Abuja. Mohammed Adara retired last year and is no longer a staff of the Commission.”
The Commission further added that the configuration of BVAS was to be done “simultaneously and exclusively” in the state offices where off-cycle elections will be conducted next month.