Mixed Results Trail INEC’s Mock Trial of Card Readers

   

• Commission extends PVC collection to March 22       
• No further shift of poll, says Abdusalami committee

Our Correspondents

There were varied outcomes from yesterday’s field-testing of the smart card readers (SCRs) across the country by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The exercise held in 225 polling units and 358 voting points across 12 Registration Areas (i.e. wards) in 12 states of the federation, recorded excellent performance of the electronic devices in many areas. But there were reports of failures of the machines in some places.

This was as INEC announced a new deadline of March 22 for the collection of the permanent voter cards. The two-week extension was contained in a statement yesterday by the chief press secretary to INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu. The commission had earlier fixed March 8 as the last day for the collection of the PVCs ahead of the March 28 presidential/National Assembly and April 11 governorship/House of Assembly elections.

In preparation for the poll, INEC simultaneously tried out the electronic card readers yesterday by using them for mock voter accreditation processes in wards picked from two states in each of the six geopolitical zones of the country. The wards are in the following local government areas and states: Port Harcourt City (Rivers), Abakaliki (Ebonyi), Ado Ekiti (Ekiti), Gassol (Taraba), Kumbotso (Kano), and Bunza (Kebbi).

Others are Kokona (Nasarawa), Shiroro (Niger), Ikeja (Lagos), Aguata (Anambra), Oshimili South (Delta), and Jama’are (Bauchi).
In Port Harcourt, the United Nations observers, who monitored the test-run of the card readers, expressed satisfaction with their performance. Leader of the group, Mrs. Eno Udensi, said at State Primary School, Orominike, Port Harcourt, venue of the test-run, that  based on her observation, “The machines are working, even though the thumb-printing is failing in most cases, the face of a registered voters appears on the card reader. Some came with oily hands that make their cards difficult to read.
“While it took about one or two minutes for the card reader to okay one person, a particular person had to wait for 15 minutes before the card reader was able to read his thumb print. But the photographs are showing on the card readers.”

The field-testing was done at Dan Maliki Ward in Kumbotso Local Government Area, Kano State; Central Primary School, Gwada, Egwa-Gwada Registration Area, in Shiroro Local Government Area, Niger State; Igbo Ukwu, Ward I, in Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State;  Izzi Unuhu Ward in Abakaliki Local Government Area, Ebonyi State; Asagba Primary Umueze and Niger Mixed Secondary School, Ezenei Avenue, all in Asaba, Delta State; and Jama're B Ward of Jamare're Local Government Area, Bauchi State.
INEC conducted the mock accreditation in Ekiti State at Dallimore, Ward 009. European Union Election Observers, Mrs Rumi Ana

Decheva and Mr Uros Urstga, who monitored the mock election in Ekiti State, commended INEC for the initiative, saying it would help in adding credibility to the country’s electoral process.
Decheva said, “I think the practicability of these machines has been confirmed. Each voter spent less than five seconds and by this it is not going to waste time, contrary to insinuations.”

One issue that came out in most of the test centres was the inability of the card readers to recognise dirtied fingerprints.
PDP said it had noted the complaints about the lapses witnessed at yesterday’s field testing of the card readers, stressing, however, that it is waiting for INEC’s official pronouncement on the exercise.

For now, the two main political parties have continued to ramp up their campaigns ahead of the general election. Though, PDP and APC had after the postponement of the elections last month resorted to town hall meetings and personal consultations with key audiences in different parts of the country. However, in an apparent attempt to up the tempo of the campaigns, which tended to slow down after the announcement of the shift, the parties conducted rallies at the weekend.

In Lagos, APC did a “one-million-man march” for its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. It took prominent members of the party and their supporters on about nine kilometres walk from Maryland to Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, where a mega rally was held.
Among APC leaders who addressed the rally were the party’s national leader, Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu, its vice presidential candidate,

Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the state governorship candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, Senators Oluremi Tinubu and Gbenga Ashafa, Hon. Olelekan Adeola, Hon. Abike Dabiri, and Lagos State coordinator of the APC presidential campaign organisation,  Hon. James Faleke.

Yesterday also, at the Eagle Square, Abuja, the Nigerian sports community, led by sports legends, veteran athletes, and Nollywood acts, under the auspices of Nigerian Sports Community, hosted a solidarity march and endurance trek in honour of Jonathan. It featured, among others, Mary Onyali, Kanu Nwankwo , Joseph Yobo , Mr Chika Chukwmerije, and Jonathan Akin Yemi.

In continuation of consultations for his re-election bid, Jonathan visited the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade with other monarchs from the state, yesterday. Welcoming the president on behalf of the monarchs, the Orangun of Oke-Ila, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, urged Goodluck Jonathan to ensure proper representation of Osun State in the federal government in his second tenure. He sought the assistance of the president in the fixing of the dilapidated roads in the state.

The president said his administration had touched almost all the sectors of the economy and promised to do more if re-elected. Jonathan assured that his administration would implement the report of the national conference.
According to him, “Only the PDP can implement the report of the confab. Contrary to the opposition beliefs, I did not influence the committee of confab and we have decided to implement 100 per cent of the report.”
On the marginalisation of South-west in the present administration, Jonathan said, “I promised that in the next dispensation, the South-west will not be short-changed in any way.”

The Ooni led other monarchs to pray for Jonathan.
Meanwhile, All Progressives Congress described as callous, morbid, and insensitive the comment by President Goodluck Jonathan that the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped in April last year by Boko Haram insurgents were alive because their abductors would have displayed their bodies if they had been killed. A statement on Saturday by the APC national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed,​ ​said​  the comment offended human sensibilities instead of providing hope and succour for the traumatised parents of the girls.

Responding to Lai Mohammed’s statement on the Chibok girls, Spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Fani-Kayode said, “Whilst the majority of Nigerians are overjoyed by the fact that the President has given us hope by saying that the girls are still alive. Lai Mohammed and the APC are not happy.
“The truth is that they do not want those girls to be found and neither do they care about their welfare or their safety."

But ahead of the presidential election, Peoples Democratic Party national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, yesterday gave the party’s state chairmen and coordinators of its presidential campaign strict directives on how to ensure victory for Jonathan. Chief press secretary to the national chairman, Tony Amadi, said Muazu gave the chairmen and coordinators a 10-point programme during a meeting of the PDP presidential campaign council, where he declared that it was a sacred duty for the party to ensure the president’s re-election.

Also yesterday, the National Peace Committee on 2015 Elections, led by former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, assured that the general election would hold on the scheduled dates and there will be no further postponement. The committee told journalist in Abuja after about five hours meeting that it had received assurance from the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, and the Inspector of General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, that the polls would hold as scheduled.

Spokesperson of the committee, Justice Roseline Ukeje, a former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, said, “There is no fear of a further postponement because in any case, there is no power in the constitution to further postpone the elections.” She explained that the top military brass and the INEC chairman “gave assurance that there will be election on the dates set out.”

Ukeje said the peace committee agreed with Jega that soldiers would be there to provide security but will not interfere with the voting process. Other members of the group in attendance at yesterday’s meeting included the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar; the Catholic Bishop of Abuja, John Onaiyekan: the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Mathew Kukah; Commodore Ebitu Ukwe; Senator Ben Obi; Professor Oshita Oshita; and chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council, Yunusa Tanko.