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 ensuring a hitch free
poll that will reflect the summative choice of Nigerians.
“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.
Chairman of the Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega
“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.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/why-im-being-attacked-over-card-readers-jega/#sthash.b31oEzNe.dpuf

the story long sha......


but the truth is dat free and fair elections will be very difficult in Nigeria. Even jega knows dat

anyway maybe superman can help and I learnt he is already here

We know who the would be riggers are. They are used to the usual "massive secret thumb printing" system and now the "goat has been separated from the yam"

Let the goat go otuoke go eat grass jor.

Sai Baba.