INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has warned politicians and Nigerians intending to undermine the electoral process by presenting cloned cards for accreditation during the March 28th and April 11th elections that such will be efforts in futility.

Professor Jega who answered questions on INEC’s preparedness for the polls at a Town Hall Meeting yesterday, said: “we feel confident that people will try to clone cards but a cloned card cannot be read by our Card Reader. We have examined all the possibilities of hacking and we have taken care of this.

“We feel confident that using the Card Reader will help us ensure that no cloned card will be used in the electoral process because the Card Reader will only read cards that have been produced and issued by INEC. For those that for some reason the Card Reader could not read their finger prints, we have already agreed with political parties on what to do under those circumstances”.

The INEC Chairman emphasised the Commission’s resolve to use the Card Reader, explaining that beyond checking electoral fraud and improving the integrity of the electoral process, the Card Reader would also assist the Commission “to keep record of who has been accredited and also enable us to send that information to a central data base. And if there’s any dispute as to who has been accredited, we will be able to use that information to audit a polling unit and be able to confirm the number of people accredited in that polling unit”.

Professor Jega explained that “INEC has in the past been challenged by not being able to do a statistical analysis immediately after the election to tell not only how many people have been accredited but to tell people what are the demographics of these persons,” adding that tremendous value will be added using the card reader.

Source: INEC Bulletin