Only Card Readers Will Be Used for Guber Elections – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that the hitches experienced with the use of the card readers in the just concluded presidential elections will not re-occur when Nigerians troop out for gubernatorial elections on Saturday, April 11, 2015.

The spokesperson to INEC Chairman, Mr Kayode Idowu, enthused that the factors responsible for the said hitches have been discovered with adequate measures taken to avert a repeat.

Idowu said: “Some of the networks that the cards were fixed in had challenges. That was the complaint on that day but you will discover that in the course of time, these card readers that they said were malfunctioning started to function. It was when they got the word across to them that remove those sim cards to heat it with the phone before you insert again but when you do that you have to reconfigure, so those things have been identified and have been taken care of.

“The device itself, in terms of the product quality, is of very high integrity; that we have demonstrated and proven. So we know what accounted for those challenges and we are working on them.

“We had challenges with the card readers in less than one percent of the 155, 000 polling units across the country.

“It was only unfortunate that we had issues in high-profile places like Otuoke [hometown of the president in Bayelsa] and when you have such a thing it overwhelms other areas. But like I said, we have identified those areas and we are working on them.”

INEC has a situation room that you can reach on 0700callINEC.