Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, said yesterday it would be irresponsible of him to resign his appointment, less than two weeks to the general elections.
Ethnic militia groups, such as the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) organised protests in the South-East and Lagos respectively in the last 48 hours, calling for Jega’s resignation and their opposition to the use of Card Readers for the elections.
Jega, who spoke in Abuja during the Town Hall meeting organized by the Ford Foundation in conjunction with Channels Television, maintained that resigning such a sensitive position with just a few days to the elections will only be irresponsible of him.
While reacting to various protesters asking for his resignation and or removal, Prof. Jega said: “The issue of my resignation at this point in time just days to the elections will be irresponsible of me to do. I have a duty to perform and I am very focused on delivering free, fair and credible elections that will even surpass what we did in 2011.
“I will only say that the issue of resignation is out of the question and let me state that nobody has asked me to resign. I only read it in the pages of newspapers just as you did.”
Responding to many of the questions on the INEC’s readiness for the elections, Jega said the postponement from February 14 to March 28 has actually helped the commission to prepare better for the polls.
The INEC boss, however, noted that the elections could still have taken place last month with the 67 per cent projection for the collection of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) before the postponement.
“Certainly, the postponement of the polls has helped us to prepare better but that does not mean that by February 14, we could not have had a good election because by our projection, we were to distribute 67% of the PVCs which would have been far better than any previous record. In Ekiti and Osun, it was barely 63%.
“One major challenge we have in distributing the voter cards is our own peculiarities in Nigeria. In some other places, you can even mail the cards to people, but we all know what the result will be if we try that here. We should also ask why many PVCs are lying idle at collection centres without their owners coming for them,” he noted.
On the issue of the Card Readers, Jega warned that the decision on use for the elections is irreversible even as he explained that already the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) have been mandated to begin enlightening the people in their states on the need to keep their hands clean before coming to do their accreditation.
According to him, “the role of the military, as defined in the Constitution, is for the Armed Forces to provide support to civil authorities if there is a breakdown of law and order, stressing that the military participated in the 2011 elections within the confines of the Constitution to provide support to the police”.
He noted that as it used to be in the previous elections, every policeman attached to various polling units will be asked to stay 300 metres away, adding that there was no time INEC had never allowed men in uniform to partake in the electoral proceedings.
“We have never had policemen at polling units, what we have had is three unarmed policemen manning a polling unit, while three armed policemen stay 300 metres away from the polling unit.
Responding to a question on the state of security which was the basis for the shifting of the elections, Jega stated that the situation in the country has improved now. “There is evidence indicating we are much better security-wise than before the postponement of the election,” he said.
… ‘We’re ready for polls, no going back on Card Readers’
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, declared yesterday that the commission is very much ready for the general elections which will start with the March 28 presidential and National Assembly polls.
Prof Jega, who spoke in Abuja through his Chief Press Secretary, Kayode Robert Idowu, warned that there is no going back on the use of Card Readers for the March 28 and April 11 general elections, arguing that the rejection of the finger-prints of some registered voters was not peculiar with the smart Card Readers alone. Jega hosted stakeholders during a Town Hall meeting held in Abuja yesterday.
On INEC’s readiness, especially as regards the complaints trailing the use of Card Readers, Idowu replied: “INEC is very ready as I speak with you now. We are fully ready. The challenges of the scanner failing to read the fingers notwithstanding. There were cases of such in the ongoing Bank Verification Number (BVN) registration and many others. However, in anticipation of such, the commission has agreed with the political parties to accept any voter whose card has proven that he is the genuine owner.
“Let me also say that the inability of the Card Readers to identify some finger-prints does not mean that the readers have problem. The problem is majorly because of the nature of the finger-prints of people in those areas.
“The best way to understand the functionality of the Card Readers is to disaggregate the objectives. INEC is deploying Card Readers for four objectives. The first is to identify, and verify if the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) are cloned or genuine. In that regard, it was 100 per cent successful because it identified and rejected all the cloned Card Readers.
“The second objective, which is to authenticate the finger-prints in confirmation with the person who presented the genuine card. This was where we had some issues in some areas and where the issue of percentage of whether they were biometrically authenticated came in. But as I said, it is not peculiar with INEC Card Readers.
“The third objective which is to disaggregate all voters according to their demographics like male or female, elderly or youths. We have the data of all those accredited during the demonstration of Card Readers. The last objectives is that it sends data to INEC server such that by the time the paper trail comes in, INEC is able to authenticate and audit the paper trail based on advance data that have been made available.
“Before they send in their records from the states, the commission already knows what took place there like how many people that presented their voters cards for accreditation. In all these, it was 100 per cent successful.
“This incident forms people are alluding to is not something new. It is something the commission decided with the political parties before the guidelines were drafted. INEC is not operating on planet earth. I want Nigerians to understand that the rejection of finger-prints is not peculiar with INEC.
“There was no place that the battery has a challenge except in those few areas they (batteries) were not fully charged. When the battery is fully charged, it will work for a minimum of 12 hours in continual use. Since the accreditation is five hours, there is no way the battery can be exhausted in accreditation. As a matter of fact, in some places where the batteries were fully charged, they still had residual power up to 65 per cent,” he noted.
On the incidences of collection of PVCs by proxy, Idowu said: “Are you aware that some INEC officials have been disciplined in regard to this distribution of these PVCs. We have a case in Lagos where some INEC staff were disciplined.
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