Activist Tasks INEC On Card Readers

Renowned human rights activist and chieftain of United Brothers’ of Opobo Kingdom (UBOK), Comrade Rowlings Goodluck Ubani, has tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure hitch-free elections in Nigeria subsequently.
Speaking with The Tide recently, in Opobo Town on the past elections in Nigeria, and the performance of INEC, Ubani expressed displeasure on the poor performance of the commission’s card readers in the just-concluded general elections in the country, saying, it led to the disenfranchisement of many eligible registered voters in Nigeria.
According to him, there were discrepancies in the last elections in Rivers State, and Nigeria in general, noting that INEC deserves commendation, but stressed that much still needed to be done to improve the standard of elections in the country.
“We had issues with one of the card readers but the INEC staff responsible for repairing them came and fixed it. I commend the security agencies”, he said.
“The area INEC needs improvement is the functionality of the card readers. I don’t know how it was programmed. In almost all the polling units, there were series of complains resulting from the card readers.
“Even in our polling unit, it malfunctioned, but was rectified after few hours. INEC should look into problems associated with card readers’ configuration so that in subsequent elections, it would be easier”, he advised.
Ubani noted that a situation where people came with their Permanent Voter’s cards (PVCs) to the right polling units and their names were not found in the voters register can be attributed to human error.
He explained that that can be a mistake from INEC data base, and that if a registered voter has PVC and his or her name is omitted in the register, “personally I feel the voter should be allowed to vote because that error is not from him or her as the PVC was duly signed and issued by INEC”.
On vote buying, he said: “As a candidate, when your impact is greatly felt by your people, they will freely give you their mandate needless of vote-buying and selling in Nigeria.”

Bethel Toby