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Former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, has said that every polling unit in Nigeria has internet access.
Accordimg to Daily Post, Okoye made the revelation on Tuesday during an interview “Trust TV”.
“All the INEC machines for the election come with power banks and other accessories,” Okoye said.
“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. So, what the Presiding Officer has input cannot be undone until it connects to the network,” he explained.
“No, this whole issue 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.
Okoye also noted that before the deployment of iReV, INEC had conducted elections in various locations and successfully uploaded polling unit–level results through its result viewing portal.
His comments directly challenge assertions by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and others, who had cited network connectivity as a potential limitation in transmitting election results electronically.
