PDP RAISES ALARM OVER CARD READER...

PEOPLE’S Democratic Party (PDP) advocacy group, PDP Integrity Vanguard, yesterday raised the alarm over the confusion that might arise from the use of card reader during the general elections.

A press statement issued by the group’s co-ordinator and pioneer publicity scribe of the PDP, Aniete Okon, said INEC’s insistence on using the card reader ‎was‎ “ a resolve to unduly disenfranchise Nigerians.”

The group said the plan to use the card reader to pose some basic questions that were yet to be answered by INEC. According to the group, the introduction of “Incident Form” to compliment the card reader has even created more doubts in the minds of the public regarding the preparedness of INEC.


“The latest attempt has manifested itself through the Commission’s introduction of Incident Form into the voter accreditation process as a palliative in a situation where the Smart Card Reader fails to authenticate a prospective voter. Upon filling the Incident Form, the voter is ‘accredited’ to vote.

“A corollary to the above scenario is that fundamental questions are raised, the following being a few of them: At what point is accreditation deemed to be complete? In other words, is a person deemed to have been properly accredited if accreditation is done on the basis of an Incident Form?

“Does the Card Reader possess the capacity to capture and/or transmit information relating to the use of Incident Form, e.g the number of persons accredited by the use of the form vis-a-vis the total number of accredited persons?

“Is the Card Reader capable of automatically generating a warrant that will become the basis for issuance of the Incident Form?

“If the answer to three above is in the negative, how can a nexus be established between the Card Reader and the Incident Form?”

The statement further argued that the confusion that would arise from the use of the card reader and Incident Form would mar the electoral process.

“Again, there is the issue of integrity of the Incident Form itself. Is it classified as a sensitive INEC document possessing those embedded security features that will distinguish an authentic one from a counterfeit? Our organization insists that if this is not the case, then the entire accreditation process is a premeditated exercise in futility.

“The leadership of this organization wants to be on record as saying that all evidence point to the fact that the so-called Incident Form is designed to achieve two fraudulent objectives:

“To disenfranchise those that INEC wants disenfranchised;

“To enfranchise others who are legally precluded from voting – all in a rabid attempt to secure victory for the All Progressive Congress.”

guardian.