Police recover empty crates of stolen INEC equipment

.Presidency summons aviation minister, FAAN chief

.Reps probe incident

ABOUT 20 empty casements of Direct Data Capturing (DDC) machines imported by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but reportedly stolen by gunmen on Monday night have been recovered.

A source said they were found at the end of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport , Lagos runway in a bush close to Shasha, a residential area near the airport.

But the casements were all devoid of the DDC machines crated in them.

Some gunmen carted away the equipment at the Cargo shed area of Nigeria Aviation Handling Company after it was offloaded from a Saudi Air aircraft.

But the INEC yesterday reassured the nation that the voters’ registration exercise scheduled for January 15-29, 2011 remained on course. In a statement by Chief Press Secretary to the commission’s chairman, Kayode Idowu, INEC wrote: “This reassurance is necessary against the backdrop of the theft of some Direct Data Capture machines at the Lagos Airport .

“A consignment of 20 machines was stolen on Tuesday, out of a total of 6,000 brought into the country by Zinox Technologies Ltd., the contractor. Sixteen of these have been recovered by Thursday afternoon, and security agents are working assiduously to recover the four outstanding and apprehend the culprits.

Guardian Newspaper

Sixteen of these have been recovered by Thursday afternoon, and security agents are working assiduously to recover the four outstanding and apprehend the culprits.

Did he mean to say 16empty crates were recovered. Naija, those thieves will never stop fooling themselves