 It's still the breakfast and plus TV Africa since Nigeria's independence in 1960 the electoral process has always been manual now from voter registration accreditation voting process which involves Tom printing the ballot papers ticking and sticking it in the ballot box. It was quite different for 2007 where the independent international electoral commission INEG introduced the direct data captured as the DDC method for voter registration for the election that held that year. Now with the DDC INEG had hoped to eliminate double registration, double voting and other electoral practices. However, the conduct of the 2007 polls was widely criticized and pronounced fraudulent by local and international observers. The winner of the 2007 presidential election, former president Muaro Musoyaradwa admitted that the exercise had short comments. Now in 2011 the independent national electoral commission that is INEG introduced the automated fingerprint identification system but the technology also fell short of the expectation. It could only create digital register to erase double registration. It was also incapable of verifying the identity of voters at the polling station. Now in the buildup to the 2015 elections INEG introduced the permanent voters card as the PVCs and the smart card reader technology in an apparent effort to minimize election fraud and Reagan was touted as a game changer as the smart card readers introduction helped reduce electoral fraud according to expert. Now in 2020 the electoral body also introduced a result viewing portal that's the IREV enabling Nigerians to view polling units results in real time as voting ends on election day. Now following that year INEG launched the bimodal voter accreditation system that's the BEVAS which is 2023 we're talking about. One of the objectives of this is to eliminate identity thefts on election day and also using another person's permanent voters card among other issues. Mohammad Abdulahi is a public relations officer right here in Lagos and public affairs analyst. He joins us. Abdulahi thank you so much for being part of the show this morning. Let me share your thoughts on our use of technology in some parts of our election not the entire conduct or electoral process. Do you believe in the BEVAS to help reduce election malpractice fraud and every other error that you can imagine? Thank you very much. Yes to a very large extent I believe that the BEVAS is a game changer even though it has its own shortcoming. You know things that are associated with every kind of technology all over the world because you remember you still have people at the back end. So if these people are compromised one way or the other it might affect things but on a general scale I think the BEVAS would be a game changer. If what INEG has been telling Nigerians you know for the past one year or so and even I mean for the past two years or so since the introduction of BEVAS. If you remember in the by-election in Delta State and then it's been used in some other elections like show elections and number elections and even equity elections and we've seen consistency of the use of this cutting edge technology. So I think it would be a game changer because like you rightly mentioned INEG has mentioned that they have two cardinal objectives for introducing the BEVAS. One which you mentioned is which INEG mentioned is the fact that you know to eliminate identity tell. You have to go to the voting unit with your PVCs and the BEVAS had to capture either your fingerprints or your face when you are trying to accredit in order to vote. Without this it's not possible. Before this time around I mean before the introduction of the BEVAS earlier on INEG has other facilities like the incidence form where if probably we know we can't identify who you are and so on. We have the incidence form and that largely has been thought and INEG has made it categorical this time around that the incidence form is not going to be used. It's been eliminated. Everybody that has to vote must pass through the BEVAS accreditation. And secondly the very good advantage of the BEVAS if you are following me is the fact that you know as voted as you are accredited and you are voting. The BEVAS is recording and transmitting results real time from the various polling units to the INEG results viewing centers. So it leaves room for almost zero manipulation because all these things are going to be done real time. Because the challenges that we may have is the fact that yes if for instance INEG did not train the professionals that will handle this BEVAS well that might be a big challenge. Because even like I mentioned earlier no matter the use or I mean how the technology is so cut in edge. If you don't have professionals that will handle it, if you don't train them well that might be a big challenge because I can handle the BEVAS for instance. I only know the BEVAS, I know about it but I don't know how to operate it. So if you allow mediocres, you allow people who are not well trained in handling the BEVAS to handle it that might pose a big challenge and that might disenfranchise many Nigerians. So I want to give INEG the benefit of the doubt that they've secured the cutting edge technology but again they put in manpower in place that will handle this cutting edge technology. I want to give INEG the benefit of the doubt that come Saturday and subsequent elections the use of the BEVAS will eliminate the whole lot in terms of what we are used to in terms of election practices in Nigeria in the past years. I mean let's go back to talk about you know the tribunal case, the concern at Dilikay. One of the issues that was raised is the issue of overvoting and now you ask yourself overvoting and the use of the BEVAS, how did we get there? So do you think that the BEVAS have the capacity to dictate multiple votes? For instance we know that a lot of persons which is very criminal, the electoral act already states that you can't be a holder of one PVC. So when you have people who have voted, for instance you have a PVC to vote in a certain polling unit and you go to another polling unit. So do you think that the BEVAS have what it takes to dictate the issue of multiple PVC holders or multiple voting at the time? Definitely. By what INEG has been telling us in terms of the BEVAS, remember also the BEVAS was used in registering and authenticating the INEG register in the recent past. So what INEG has been telling Nigerians is the fact that the BEVAS have the capability and ability to detect multiple registrations and also to detect proud. Like you mentioned you can't you know vote probably in Agi-Gi and then vote you and in Lagos and then you know you want to vote again. I think with the BEVAS I'm sure with what INEG has been telling us. So Abdullah here because we don't have time. If that's the case how come we still also had the issue of overvoting in the case of Adeleke in Oshun state? I want to link that to INEG because I remember INEG has also joined you know in appealing for that case because it's like it's directly their duty. So I would want to comment on that because it's still in court. The governor said he will appeal the case and I've read somewhere in the media where INEG is also joining in the case to defend that. Probably there was no overvoting and maybe it's another thing entirely that the judges you know depended their ruling upon. So I would want to comment more than that on that case because you know the case is in court. We'll just move away from that. Thank you so much Mohammed Abdulahi for being part of our show this morning. We appreciate your thoughts and we also hope that you're ready to go cast your votes come the 25th of February. Yes thank you very much. All right then that's it. That's the size of a conversation on the breakfast this morning. We do appreciate you. Thank you so much for being part of it. We'll return tomorrow or things. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at Plus TV Africa, Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. My name is Messi Ebuco. Good morning.