Africa-Press – Nigeria. The Managing Director of Anambra ICT Agency, Mr Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, has revealed some of the strategies used by supporters of Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, to stop his votes from being stolen.
Soludo had, before the election, alleged that his opponents had plans to write results in a secret location and get officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to swap them with the authentic results.
Agbata, who spoke with DAILY POST, said his agency, as a strong supporter of Soludo, was also aware of this and worked hard to ensure that they guarded the votes garnered by the governor.
He said: “Anambra runs with the mantra, ‘everything technology and technology everywhere,’ and that mantra is what guides Mr. Governor.
“We as an ICT Agency know this, and we also know that elections are a very complex thing, so we decided to look for a way that technology can make things better. The idea was how to use this technology to manage the process, such that the Governor and our party people can be aware of what is happening in all the 5,720 polling units in the state.
“We also needed a way to ensure that incident reports, results, and any other general information were easily captured. That way, we had to come up with a strategy where we built a two-way system command and control centre, what you may call a situation room, one in Isuofia, the governor’s hometown, and one in Awka, at the Government House here.
“That way, we were able to police the governor’s votes against theft. You can see these giant screens — it was from here that we coordinated the results, tracking them from polling unit to polling unit, ward to ward, and local government to local government.
“The other screen is dedicated to IREV. As INEC was uploading their results, we were also comparing them with what we had on our portal, and tracking wards where results were yet to be remitted, while our men in the field chased after them to avoid manipulations.”
Agbata, who is popularly known by the acronym CFA, further added: “By 4 p.m. in the evening, we were able to get almost all the results. We were sure the governor would win, but we needed to build a system that could help us protect Mr. Governor’s votes and also ensure that the margin was wide, and no vote was lost. While we were here (Government House), another command control centre was in the governor’s house in Isuofia, and he was also monitoring his votes in real time.”
Speaking on other ways the agency used technology to drive the governor’s aspiration, Agbata said: “Before the election, we had also conducted a survey, using phone calls to over 200,000 Anambra people, with a set of seven questions, asking where they would vote and why they would be voting for such a person. We also incurred over 20 terabytes of data for the election, giving out free Wi-Fi in strategic places and at events.
“Our research already had a ready result about the voting pattern, and believe me, some of the results we got tallied, to an extent, with the eventual outcome. That gave us an insight into the voting pattern and what to expect in the election.
“We knew we would win the election, but what we were trying to do was to see a way to guide against voter apathy. Beyond that, we already had all sorts of metrics that showed that the governor would win.
“Data is the new gold, and whether it is at the state or federal level, we need data to ensure informed decisions. So, for this election, it was important to have data on this election and see how to have a dashboard that incorporates data from previous elections, so that we can understand the voting pattern of Ndi Anambra and understand what the issues of the average Anambra person are.
“We deployed the Geeks and Founders Alliance for Soludo (GEFAS), a mobile tech hub for the election, which went around distributing free Wi-Fi. GEFAS is a support group for the governor, mainly consisting of techies (that is, technologically advanced persons), and we used our knowledge of technology to see how we can make the best out of the election,” he stated.
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