2027: Atiku raises concern over outdated BVAS

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has raised concerns over the alleged use of an outdated operating system on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), warning that it could pose cybersecurity and operational risks ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Paul Ibe disclosed this on his Facebook handle on Tuesday.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), raised the concerns following the reported failures recorded during the Osun State mock accreditation exercise on August 1, 2026, and comments by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Director of ICT, Dr Lawrence Bayode.

Bayode, while speaking on Arise TV on Monday, reportedly said the BVAS, introduced into Nigeria’s electoral process in 2021, currently runs on Android version 10.

In a statement issued by his Media Office in Abuja on Tuesday, Atiku said Android version 10 had reached end-of-life status in 2023 and no longer receives regular updates or security patches.

He argued that running an election technology platform such as BVAS on an outdated operating system could expose the electoral process to cybersecurity and operational vulnerabilities.

Atiku questioned why INEC, with what he described as its substantial budget, had not upgraded the BVAS software ahead of the 2027 general elections or used forthcoming off-cycle elections, including the Osun governorship election, to test an updated version.

He described what he called INEC’s handling of the BVAS issue as “suspicious” and alleged that it could undermine the integrity of the country’s elections.

According to him, vulnerabilities in an outdated operating system could potentially be exploited by cybercriminals to gain unauthorised access to devices and tamper with stored voter accreditation or polling unit result data before transmission.

He also raised concerns about the transmission of polling unit results over public telecommunications networks to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

Atiku said outdated security and cryptographic components could increase exposure to cyber threats, including attempts to intercept, block or manipulate data transmitted between polling units and the result-viewing platform.

The former Vice President further expressed concern about the biometric functions of BVAS, which uses fingerprint and facial recognition for voter accreditation.

He argued that an outdated biometric framework could affect the system’s accuracy and resilience against attempts to circumvent its verification processes.

Atiku also warned that software defects associated with legacy systems could lead to application crashes, particularly during periods of heavy usage, potentially causing delays in voter accreditation.

He said he supported calls by cybersecurity experts for an independent and comprehensive audit of the BVAS hardware and software ahead of the 2027 elections.

According to him, running critical national infrastructure on an end-of-life operating system could create an expanded attack surface and expose the electoral system to avoidable risks.

The statement was signed by the Atiku Media Office, Abuja, on August 11, 2026.

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