Why I’m being attacked over card readers — Jega
Category: Nigerian National News
The situation room is a coalition of over 60 Civil Society Organizations that are involved in monitoring elections in Nigeria.
Source: Vanguard
ABUJA—Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor
Attahiru Jega, Wednesday, said he has no regrets for insisting on
deploying Smart Card Reader machines for the conduct of the general
election, saying he knew that the decision would attract unwarranted
attacks on his integrity as a person.
Would-be riggers the ones crying foul, says INEC boss Jega,
who stated this while unveiling the Nigeria Civil Society Situation
Room in Abuja yesterday,, maintained that it is only those that hitherto
nurtured plans to fraudulently manipulate the outcome of the elections,
that have been crying foul over the introduction of the technology
which he said would only add credibility to the electoral process in the
country.
He said that INEC had perfected all its strategies and put every apparatus in place with a view to
“Let
me use this opportunity to reassure Nigerians that we believe that we
have done everything possible to ensure that the 2015 general election
is successful. We are adequately prepared in terms of both logistics and
manpower. Likewise, all the security agencies, especially the police
which have a lead role to play in terms of providing security during
elections, have assured us that they are ready.
“Beginning from
today, we are commencing the rolling out of non-sensitive materials.
Likewise, from Friday, all the sensitive materials will be retrieved
from the vault of the Central Bank Nigeria by our officers, accompanied
by security operatives and representatives of the political parties”.
He
said that the materials would be distributed to states from where it
would be taken to local government areas and subsequently to the ward
level.
Jega further highlighted the fact that the commission has
provided and reasonably equipped Registration Area Centers, RACs, “to
ensure that both our staff in various states and security agents spend
few hours of the night on Friday there to enable them to be ready to
deploy the sensitive materials on the election morning”.
He
assured that there will be remarkable reduction in the delays that were
previously experienced in the commencement of elections, as well as
retrieval of materials at the end of election.
However, the INEC
boss said it was regrettable that the results of the election will not
be electronically transmitted to the collation points. He said though
INEC initially piloted the procedure at two previous elections in Cross
River and Niger States, “we decided that we will not put the electronic
transmission of results to use in 2015 in view of the controversies the
procedure might likely generate from those who don’t see anything good
in what we are doing as a commission.
“We can see the dust that
the introduction of card readers raised. So we decided to keep piloting
and improving on the system beyond 2015, hopefully, by 2019, the
commission will introduce it for the general election”.
‘They know card readers ‘ll stop alteration of figures’
On
the issue of the card readers, Jega, who stressed that the process will
help address concerns about the alteration of election figures to
fraudulently confer advantage on some candidates to the detriment of
others, said no such thing would happen this time around.
“This
is indeed why they have been attacking me because they know that the
card reader machines will help us to address all those irregularities,
starting from the accreditation of voters at all the polling units. How
can they manipulate the election when all the information with regards
to the number of voters that turned out at every polling unit is
automatically captured and transmitted by the card reader machines?
‘We have made rigging impossible for them’
He
continued; “We have made rigging impossible for them as there is no how
the total number of votes cast at the polling unit could exceed the
number of accredited persons. Such discrepancy in figures will be
immediately spotted. This technology will further make it impossible for
any corrupt electoral officer to connive with any politician to pad-up
results”, he added.
Besides, Jega noted that in the past, dubious
INEC officials usually delayed the entry of number of accredited voters
until the end of voting so as to have the leeway to tamper with
results, a problem he said would be obviated by the smart card readers.
He
said that both the card readers and the result sheets would be taken to
the ward levels, “once there is evidence of tampering, the information
saved in the card reader will be retrieved.
“To my mind, these
are some of the reasons why many of them are opposing the use of the
card readers. The crooked ways they used in the past to get away with
manipulation of election results have been dealt with. This time, with
the card readers, such fraud will be easy to establish.
“We have
further made arrangement that all the results coming to local government
collection centers will be scanned, transformed to PDF format and
uploaded on our website so that anybody can go there and confirm result
from his polling unit.
“We believe that this is an added value to
our process, it is something that we have not been able to do in the
past. Let me also use this opportunity to advise political parties to
pay attention to the appointment and accreditation of agents they will
deploy at the polling unit level.
They should not appoint people without credibility, who can be bought over by other party agents”, Jega stated.
Police promises adequate security
Earlier
at the event, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, who
was represented by the force public relations officer, Mr. Emmanuel
Ojukwu, expressed the readiness of the Nigeria Police Force to provide
adequate security during and after the elections.
He said that
particular attention was being focused on the protection of NYSC members
that will work as ad-hoc staff for INEC during the elections.
“Infact,
we are already prepared for the 2019 elections. Those who taught the
Nigeria will disintegrate by 2015 are in for a disappointment. Our men
are well prepared, trained and motivated to carry out their
responsibilities during the election. We are also working with other law
enforcement agencies to have adequate security manpower”, Ojukwu said.
In
a statement that was read by the Executive Director of Policy and Legal
Advocacy Center, Mr Clement Nwankwo, the Civil Society Situation Room,
urged Nigerians to go out en mass to exercise their franchise and defend
their votes.
“It is important for all Nigerians to recognize
that beyond the partisan divisions and the outcomes of the electoral
contests, the future of Nigeria is the main issue at stake”, it added.
The situation room is a coalition of over 60 Civil Society Organizations that are involved in monitoring elections in Nigeria.
Source: Vanguard
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