Abia South: I Benefited From BVAS, Cash Crunch – Abaribe

The Senator-elect for Abia South Senatorial district, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe on Monday commended the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS.

The former Senate Minority leader also said the cash crunch caused by the cashless policy stopped widespread vote buying.

Abaribe spoke in Abuja at a seminar organised by the Media Educational Development Initiative for Africa, themed “Peace Journalism and Consolidation of Democracy in Nigeria.”

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The former deputy governor expressed gratitude to God that he survived the Peter Obi tsunami in the Southeast which retired some politicians.

“I benefited from BVAS. The technology was right, the only issue is that we have to eliminate human interference,” the lawmaker said.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, still faces criticisms over the malfunctioning of the machines in some polling units.

Abaribe defeated Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to win the February 25 Abia South senatorial election.

He polled 49,693 votes to defeat Chinedu Onyeizu of the Labour Party, LP, who scored 43,903. Ikpeazu got 28,422 votes but rejected the results.