 INEC rules out any change in order of 2023 elections and NNPC embarks on aggressive use mobilisation ahead of next year's election. This is Plus Politics. I am Mary Anna Cohn. The National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Festa Zalcoe, has spoken on emerging threats to conduct the credible polls next year. Ocoe said the commission has rejected calls for a reordering of the sequence of the general elections in a bid to stop any form of malpractice. A civil society group had on Saturday called on the commission to reorder the election saying that the 2023 polls should start with the governorship elections and not the presidential election as contained in INEC's timetable, noting that the reordering was necessary to avoid any disruption that might arise from the conduct of the presidential polls. He was joining us to break this down live to discuss the matter is Festa Zalcoe, he is the National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education for INEC. Thank you so much Mr Coe for joining us. Thank you so much. Always a pleasure. Let's start with the concerns. A lot of people have wondered how for the want of a better word to use watertight, INEC's security band around the elections for 2023 is because so many concerns have been raised, especially the ones that had to do with reordering the sequence of the election. But thank goodness you have come out to say that well it's not necessary because you have everything in control. But let's start by looking at the issue of the beavers. Many would say that this is somewhat of a technological guru for Nigeria. But we've seen the beavers work during the Anambra elections also. We've seen it in the Akiti and Oshun elections. But then these are just states. The 2023 elections will be happening simultaneously across the country. What assurances do we have in that regard? The commission has already delivered the beavers for the 2023 presidential elections to over 20 countries of the federation. The use of the beavers for a conduct of the election is not an object of discretion for the commission. The law as of today, which is the electoral act 2022, makes it mandatory that the beavers shall be used for purposes of voter authentication and accreditation. And if there is an issue of voting in the electoral process during the election, the voting will be terminated by the data of accredited voters during the election. So the norms of the beavers is akin to the norms of the 2020 presidential election. And this country cannot afford an attack law. So we are going to use the beavers for the conduct of the 2020 presidential election. Secondly, the issue of the durability of the beavers and the issue of the robustness of the beavers is not a very good teaching. We use the beavers in the key to governorship election. There were no complaints. We used it in the governorship election. There was no complaints. And we have used it for over 105 elections that we have conducted. We didn't record any issue. Yes, there were issues during the Annabrack County election and there were issues during the FCT area council election. But those issues we have overcome those issues. But before we fully deploy for the 2020 regional election, we are going to do more accreditation in all the states of the federation and in all the senatorial districts of the country. So we have the things on the run. And if we are actually, we have our registration area technical assistants who are going to deal with decisions. And we are already training them on how to troubleshoot the beavers and how to deal with issues around the functionality of the beavers. And so like that you have no doubts whatsoever relating to our capacity and deal with each clear rise. But if you say that issues will not arise, but with every, with the introduction of new technologies, you have to deal with issues. But we have the capacity to deal with those issues. Let's talk about hacking because these are genuine concerns. People always say that anything that has to do with tech, there's always a way around it. Many people have expressed that concern of a bypass of the beavers. Yes, as much as many have also reason to defend the beavers, most are concerned about how high tech INEC is right now. Or, like I said at the beginning, what walls you've built around that beaver. And of course the fact that we're going to be electronically transferring those results. One thing we must understand is that the commission is going to conduct the 2023 general election. In one present, it's 6,000, 846 fully units. We are going to deploy the beavers to all of these fully units. We also have 8,809 restoration areas. We are going to have redundancies in these areas. And if there is any challenge, we can respond quickly. The beavers as a technological device for further accreditation works offline. And each beavers will get only the data for registered voters in a fully unit. The beavers only meet network for purposes of output of the fully unit level result. In other words, the output of some EC8A. What we are uploading is the resourcing of some EC8A, assigned by the presiding officer, assigned by the pulling agents, and has given to pulling agents and secretions as a present at the unit. It is that form that will be uploaded. And in terms of the security of an IA-resolved water, we have fortified our defences. And we want to assure my viewers that there is no transfalcon. And there is nothing to fear in relation to the security of our, of the status of the 2020 generation. Let's talk about the fact that many people are looking at the beavers being a game changer. To what extent will the beavers change the game come 2023? As much as we've also seen the IPAC chairman speaking on the fact that people are saying we should go back to the incident form and drop the beavers in 2023, what source of game changing will happen because of these beavers? For the average person who does not understand the beavers. The beavers has now been classified by the commission as a sensitive electro material. This is because prior to the introduction of the beavers, the commission used a smart card reader, which reads the permanent voters card that is in the position of the voter. But this time around, the beavers reads not only the finger prints, but also reads the facial of the impending voter. So if the impending voter's fingerprint does not pass, the beavers will be used to check the facial of the impending voter. If the beavers, if the fingerprint fails and the facial fails, the implication is that the person who has come to the pudding unit to vote is in age in an ATT test and will not allow the person to vote. The commission has retired the incident form. The incident form will never be used in any election being conducted by the electoral management party. Secondly, the commission has also retired the smart card reader and replaced it with a more of a technological device that is used for voter identification and authentication. So the implication is that only the accredited voter between the ballot paper to vote on election day. And if the ballot paper, or if what has been cast on election day exceeds the number of accredited voters, the result of that particular pudding unit will be cancelled. Interesting. Now, there are people who have also talked about the fact that... Let me put it this way. People have wondered about PVCs that have not been taken or received or come to be claimed by, you know, from the commission. We've heard stories over and over again where people say, oh, a bag of PVCs were dumped in gutters, et cetera, et cetera. And you've said that the beavers are going to stop all of that ballot box snatching, et cetera, et cetera. So we're going to see more of vote buying. But do you predict, you know, card buying because it's like you said, the beavers might have to read the faces of the people. What other ways do you think that people would try to manipulate this election and are you ready to also stand against that? Mr Coy, are you ready yet? All I know is that in terms of the electoral process, it would be a useless venture. If you buy voters' cards, the implication is that those who use cards you bought will not vote in the election. And that is vote suppression. But if you buy a voter's card, thinking that you can use somebody's identity to vote on election day, that is next to impossibility. Because the data in each beavers or each polling unit will be the data of only the registered voters in that particular polling unit. And if you come out with a family voter's card that does not belong to you, there is no way that your fingerprint will be registered and there is no way that your face will be registered. So it becomes unnecessary in fertility. But you can engage in voter suppression by buying up people's family voter's cards and making sure that they don't even come to the polling unit to vote on election day. That is the only way that the voter's card will be valuable to any buyer. So I've heard of rumours, especially here in Lagos, where certain persons go to the market men and women and say, let's see your voter's card. We're going to give you a certain amount of money and on that day this is what you will do. If you do not give us your voter's card, then you may not be able to sell in the market space. These are allegations, by the way. So these people may not necessarily be buying the cards of them, but they're still obviously vote-buying one way or the other. Now you and I have had conversations about vote-buying and how INIC can reduce the level of vote-buying. But it looks like that's one of the most credible options for politicians who are corrupt. And is there anything that the Commission can do, especially in the civic space, to educate more and more people about that? The issue of educating people on the value of the votes, on the sanctity of the ballot, and also on the power of the PPC is a joint venture. Civil society groups and organisations must cooperate with the Commission and partner with the Commission in this venture. The media must partner with the Commission in relation to this venture. We must find ways and means of naming and shaming those we engage in this particular venture. But more importantly, we must realise and let those buyers realise that it is an electoral first for someone to be in possession of more than one permanent voter card. And in some of the incidents that we have recorded in places like Cam and in places like Sokoto, the police are already investigating and very soon, those who were found in possession of more than one permanent voter card will be tried to put on the necessary scenario of the law. We take these calls. So I think that we must get the more education. We must be reposting our engagement with the political parties. And we must also educate our people on the power and sanctity of the vote and also on the power of the PPC as something that can change the dynamics of governance and also change certain things in their lives. Let's talk about the fears that people have for the coming elections. Many people would say that, yes, well, we can applaud INAG for some of the elections that have happened recently, most recently, Ekiti and Oshun state. But then how are you restoring the confidence of the people in the body itself because some of the fears that people have listed is the fact that some of your workers might be bought off in a bid for these corrupt politicians to get an opportunity to do as they like. But then I don't know how that works. INAG has tried one way or the other to infuse all of these technologies to see how you can upgrade the election. But how do you get the confidence of the average person to say, well, my vote will count this time because INAG is on my side. What we have done and what we will continue to do is to let from previous elections do well and then try to improve on that. Look at those things we did so badly and we jettisoned them and look for new ways and methods and innovative ways of overcoming them. And also look at the things we have done so well and then we don't need to do anything about them. But you see, for the 20th regional election, we are going to deploy over 1.4 million ad boxers, rating from President of South and President of South 1, 2 and 3. But I think President of South that is pricing the 8809 registration area. We are going to deploy monitors. We are going to deploy relation officers. These are Nigerians that we come within the fold of the commission as ad boxers. We are going to train and create them properly. We are going to make them know that it is an electoral offence for any ad staff who attempt to corrupt or compromise electoral process. And we are going to proceed with any person who attempts to engage on ethical conduct. It is very, very strict. And we are going to make it very clear to them that the law does not break any one of them that attempts to corrupt the electoral process. But we will continue to deploy technology. We are going to continue to train the ad hoc staff very well, especially in the use of technology. And so that we will record incidents of people saying, oh, the beavers has functioned. We passed on grants of the fact that the person did not impact the training as well. So we are going to train and train them. We have also increased the band of the training at level to the ad hoc staff in relation to the 2020 election. And so we will keep on improving with every election. And we believe with Nigerians to keep on engaging the commission. It is through the criticisms of Nigerians and through their engagement with the electoral process that we have made improvements we have made. And so we continue to improve with every election. A 2020 election will not be an exception. Let's talk about, I mean, I like what you just said, but many have queried INEX handling of political parties, especially in terms of party funding, making their finances public, not going above campaign funding limit, et cetera, et cetera. Many people would say that you have somewhat treated these parties with some level of fragility and tenderness. And they're wondering why that is and why INEX is not wielding the big stick, because it seems like you always take a neutral ground when it comes to taking severe sanctions. We have approached our relationship with the team of political parties differently. First, we engage them. And as you realize, just last week, on Monday, we engaged with all the political parties bringing a quarterly consultative meeting with them. We have made it very, very clear to them that all of them was conformed to the details and letter of their constitution and the law and the understanding. We have also made it very clear to them that the issue of campaign funding will be taken seriously by the Commission. And we have developed a template to deal with this issue of campaign funding and campaign limits. Secondly, we made it very clear to them that the use of intermediate language and language meant to denigrate ethnic and religious beliefs and sentiments will not be tolerated. And we are going to proceed against any political party or any candidate that uses cedare language or language. Any other language or event meant to incite ethnic and religious beliefs and sometimes which may sometimes lead to great number of law and other that. So, I completely agree with you that there is the need for us to imply, to employ the big stick in terms of idealism with the political parties. But we are engaging and understand what the issues are and understand that going forward the Commission will apply the full weight of the law against any political party and its candidate that offends any of the provisions of the law. Let's talk about the pockets of violence that have taken place either at campaigns or in different states. We saw what happened in Kaduna in Zanfa. Government also taking laws into their hands despite what the electoral act has to say about fairness when it comes to a level playing ground for all political parties concerned. I mean, there were attacks on campaign officers, rallies, et cetera, et cetera. And all you have done is urged for arrest to be done. I know that you're not law enforcement, but again, back to wielding the big stick. If political parties feel that they can get away with this because it always happens and INEC always takes the high ground, what's host to say that we're not going to see more in the future? As I pointed out, these issues were tabled before the leaders of all the registered political parties that attended a consultative meeting with the Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday. And they understand what the issues are and they understand the implications of engaging in political violence. Do they really understand? I'm sorry, Mr Coyey. Do they really understand? Because if I know that if I steal, my hand will be cut off. I dare not steal. And if I were to steal, I'd not steal where someone would see me stealing. But that's why I ask the question again for emphasis reasons. How much seriousness is attached to this for these political parties to even take it serious in the first instance? They understand what the issues are. They understand the implications of what they are doing. And they are also aware that on Fridays last week we had a meeting with the heads of all the various security agencies in the country under the species of the agency consultative committee on election security. And at that particular meeting, there were certain agreements we had with the various security agencies relating to issues around political campaigns, relating to issues around the use of base and its linear language, relating to issues around trying to exceed the liberties place of campaign funding and campaign contributions. So the political parties are aware that we had this meeting with the various security agencies and they are also aware that there were certain agreements that were reached under that particular meeting. And they are also aware that going forward it will not be business and social. Let's talk about your updated Volta register and of course those who have registered so far, the amount of people who have been added to the millions that we had registered before now. Plus, there are still people who say they've not been able to get their voter's card. Give us a breakdown of, for example, those who registered between June and July or maybe January, when are they supposed to pick their cards and then the rest will come after them? Yes, I was just saying that on the 12th day of November 2022, the commission will begin the display of the voter's register in the 1809 registration areas and in the 774 local government areas for claims and objections. At these particular claims and objections, registered voters will have an opportunity of looking at their names and their personal particulars to be sure that what we have captured represents who they are. They will also have an opportunity of letting the commission know whether there are names of disease persons still on the register and whether there are some names that are on the register that are not supposed to be there and thereafter we clean up the register and then make it available at the political parties. But the chairman of the commission has made a pledge in Agirafdif that the privileges for those who registered between the 15th day of January 2022 and the first day of July 2022 will be available for collection in November. During this particular period, we are going to send messages to all those who registered. We are also going to use the email addresses of those who registered to send emails to them. We are going to do radio and television adverts. We are going to approach traditional and religious leaders and to let them know that these BBCs are ready to collect them. But let me make it clear. BBCs can only be collected, they cannot be distributed. BBCs must be collected by the registered voters and cannot be collected by crowds. So as of today, we have printed over 7 million of those BBCs and we are confident that by the time we finish the display of the voter's register for claims and objections, the BBCs will be ready and we will move them to the various local governments and then the resident electoral commissioners and the electoral officers will engage in some form of rotation to make sure that the BBCs are available to the people, especially at the customs. And we are going to also collaborate with side groups and organisations in terms of BBC collection. Finally, the flooding is a major concern, I know we are almost out of time. The flooding in different parts of the country is a major concern for people and you also know, if people had voters' cards, some of those voters' cards have been taken by the flood. What contingency plan is there for INEC or do you even have any plan? Or does that mean that those people will be one way or the other disenfranchised because of some natural disaster? Some of our offices in some of the local governments will affect. Now we have also asked our electoral officers to begin to compile the names and list of those who have lost their BBCs with their PIN numbers so that we can replace some of these permanent voters' cards when we are making the other cards available. So anybody who has lost his or her BBC as a result of the flooding, it should just report to any of the INEC offices and we are sure the person that we are going to replace the BBC. All right. Well, first of all Coye is the National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee with the Independent National Electrical Commission, INEC. Thank you so much Mr Coye, it was a pleasure to have these conversations. Thank you so much, I really appreciate this opportunity. All right. Well glad to have you on the programme any time. Thank you for staying with us, we'll take a short break and when we return we shall be discussing the NNPP and its youth mobilisation across the country. Stay with us.