Festus Okoye says every Nigerian polling unit has internet access, dismissing connectivity concerns during election result transmission
Festus Okoye has stated that every polling unit in Nigeria has internet access, dismissing concerns about connectivity during elections.
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Okoye made the remarks on Tuesday during an interview with Trust TV monitored by DAILY POST. He was addressing debates over the recent Electoral Act amendment signed by President Bola Tinubu.
“All the INEC machines for the election come with power banks and other accessories. Now, when elections are over, the Presiding Officer has snapped the Form EC8A, and there’s no network at that particular point, it stores the information. The moment it comes into contact with the network, it transmits immediately,” Okoye said.
He emphasised that once data is input, it cannot be altered until it reaches a network.
“No, these whole issues about network, I think it’s an unnecessary debate. There’s no polling unit in this country where there’s no network. None. Forget about all these things about network connectivity. It’s just a lame excuse,” he added.
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Okoye further recalled that before the deployment of the iReV system, the Commission conducted elections in various locations using its result viewing portal to upload polling unit-level results, highlighting INEC’s experience in managing election data transmission.
