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Card Reader: Emerhor urges INEC to do more

The governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State in the last general elections, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, has hailed the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, for his courage and integrity in standing by the commission’s guidelines for the 2015 general elections, particularly the use of Smart Card Readers, even in the face of stiff opposition from the then ruling party, the peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).

Emerhor, who spoke with our correspondent over the telephone, however accused the commission of not doing enough to safeguard the sanctity of the elections and the protection of all the candidates who participated, adding that the above responsibility has now been shifted to the tribunals.

He said INEC ought not to declare results that did not emanate from the Card Readers and/or use such results to declare winners. His words: “If INEC set out to use Card Readers to conduct elections it ought to put in place a mechanism to ensure that the results declared are those emanating from the use of Card Readers and not those that were manually manipulated.”

Emerhor went further to say that “it is a regrettable dereliction of duties for INEC and its staff to, in the first instance, either connive or turn a blind eye and then go ahead to announce and declare winners based on manually generated results in place of Card Readers results, thereby empowering elections riggers and punishing law-abiding candidates with the burden of proof at the tribunal in their quest to annul illegally acquired mandate, a situation that was avoidable abinitio.”

In addition, the APC governorship candidate said even now INEC still have an opportunity to go beyond just reconfirming its guidelines, as Prof Jega has just done, by standing up to provide all necessary support materials, by being its readiness to testify at the tribunals and by taking legal stand against undeservingly declared winners at the ongoing tribunal cases.

He concluded by saying that it is imperative for the commission to discharge its duties and responsibilities through its legal representatives who are now defending INEC’s role at the various tribunals by supporting aggrieved candidates against undeserving declared winners.

June 29, 2015
INEC didn’t change directive on card reader – Jega

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Thursday said the commission did not change its directive on the use of card reader for the governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

Jega, who spoke during a post 2015 general election assessment retreat for resident electoral commissioners in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said it was only during the presidential election that the commission instructed all the states that wherever there was evident of card readers’ failure they should revert to manual accreditation.

The theme of the retreat was: “2015 General Elections: Lessons and Way forward.”

The INEC chairman, who said no elections had ever been perfect, insisted that the last elections were highly successful.

Jega said: “If you recall there was at least an interval of two weeks between the presidential and governor elections, we studied everything that was a problem with the card readers within those two weeks and rectified them.

“We were absolutely sure that for the governorship election, card readers would not be a problem. That was why for the governorship election we instructed that the card readers must be used.

“And so, if there is evidence of any place where they just put aside the card readers and use manual accreditation, that election can be examined. I am sure the tribunal will look at the evidence clearly as to what happened.

“As far as I know, the commission did not change that directive, so card readers must be used. And if there were places where card readers were not used for the governorship election, then people were entitled to produce evidence for that so that the commission could take necessary actions.”

June 18, 2015
Yobe to conduct council poll with card reader

The local government elections in Yobe State, coming up later in the year, will be conducted with the use of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) Card Reader (CR), the Chairman of Yobe State Independent Electoral Commission (YBSIEC), Mohammed Jauro Abdu, has said.

Abdu, who spoke with The Nation in Damaturu at the weekend, noted that his commission decided to take a cue from INEC to use the card reader due to the credibility the technology brought in the last general elections.

“I believe the use of the card reader by INEC in the last general elections has brought a lot of credibility to the electoral process. We are therefore poised to replicate this in our local government elections coming up before the end of this year.

“I feel Yobe should take advantage of this good technology and set the pace by being the first state to conduct a local government election with the INEC card readers. Don’t ask me if we are going to procure our own card readers. No. We have already concluded arrangement with INEC,” he said.

June 8, 2015
‘Card reader was PDP’s albatross’

Dr. Theodore Ejikemeuwa Ekechi was the Director of Election Planning and Monitoring of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation. In this interview with Correspondent OKODILI NDIDI, he explains how the campaign was planned and executed, among other sundry issues.

The APC was not given a chance by many Nigerians to win the Presidential election. What was the magic done by the Campaign Organization that gave the party landslide victory?

I give the credit to the foundation work that led to the success and you cannot discuss the success of that election without mentioning the names of people like Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Imo State Governors Rochas Okorocha and Rotimi Amaechi and General Muhammadu Buhari. There was a strong conviction on the part of these people. They realised that Nigeria was ripe for change. They also realised that Nigerians were yearning for change and that, if properly mobilized, the change will come.

Another critical factor that put us over the PDP was that in the APC, we were made of more brain than brow. We were given to planning; there was a lot of thinking and projections far more than what was done in the PDP. For instance, two months to the election, we were able to know where the APC stood. We knew the states that we will win through our own direct interaction with the voters and projections.

We were able to also know that we were going to win the elections and that the only way we could lose was through rigging, which we knew the PDP will explore.

We also know that the APC do not have the capacity to rig the election. So, we raised the alarm on time and it generated national and international interest in the process of the election and this helped to check whatever plans the PDP had to rig the election.

Apart from these, what other factor worked for the APC?

We had a strong candidate with a strong massage. A candidate who was to a very large extent impeccable. This brightened our chances and made our job at the campaign organization easier. Another mistake that the PDP made that promoted the APC candidate was the hate campaign, especially the certificate scandal. At first, we were worried with the hate campaigns, but our investigations showed that they were instead giving the APC candidate an edge and portraying the PDP as desperate. Another one was the hate campaign against the APC national leader, Asiwaju Tinubu. The TV documentary exposed President Goodluck Jonathan’s anti-graft policy as very weak. Nigerians started to ask why was Tinubu not prosecuted, if he was as corrupt as projected by the PDP. It was also laughable for the PDP to claim that Buhari who has held several exalted offices aside from the Head of State has no school certificate. It was after we realised what the hate campaign was doing for us that we left them to continue.

The PDP Campaign Organization equally did everything possible to win the election. What will you say that the APC did differently.

The major difference is our approach. We had a membership that was committed to change, unlike in the PDP where everybody at the campaign organization was employed and paid at the end of the month or week. We had a team that was committed and could come to the office with their personal laptops and recharge their phones with their own airtime. Again, while the PDP was busy engaging in media blitz, we were busy connecting with the voters. We were reaching out, but the PDP believed that everything can be achieved with money.

How were you able to check the plot to rig the election.

The introduction of the card readers was the albatross of the PDP. When we noticed that rigging could be checked through the use of the card readers, we insisted that it should be used. We engaged in massive campaign against the plan to drop the card readers by the PDP. But, you should recall that it was the PDP dominated National Assembly that approved the card reader and not the APC. It was a PDP President that approved the disposal of the funds for the procurement of the Card Readers all we did was to insist that it should be used for the election.

We know that the way elections are rigged is to inflate the number of votes. Say for instance, in a polling unit where you have 500 registered voters, out of this number, only 200 may turn out for to vote but at the end of the day the PDP will write maybe 450 and there is no way you can counter that the card reader can give the accurate number of accredited voters in every Polling Unit and this will make it impossible to inflate the figures. You will agree that the areas the election was manipulated were areas where the Card Readers were sabotaged.

How was the APC able to withstand the onslaught of the TAN, which spent billions of naira wooing the electorates?

In the first place, TAN was founded for money making and not to promote or project President Jonathan. The founders were only interested in heavy media blitz to get the attention of the President and were in turn rewarded with concessions to lift petroleum products. They equally had undue advantage at the Bureau de change market; they were given concessions before others. If you go to Abuja along the airport road, they lined up the President’s campaign billboards to catch his attention to make it appear as if they were committed to his reelection but in actual fact they were only using it as a front to make money.

At a time, your organization was accused of hacking into the INEC database and romancing with the INEC Chairman. How true was this?

There is no iota of truth in that allegation. I set up what we called the control room and there was nothing untoward about our activities. We allowed people free access. The EU visited us. We have over one hundred people working in the control room. So, if we were doing anything illegal, someone at least should have opened his mouth and start singing. What happened was that when the PDP discovered that the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, was not forthcoming on their plan to rig the election, they started to call for his removal. They met a wall in Jega who insisted on credible election unlike his predecessors. That apart, INEC document is a public document and we don’t have to hack into any database to access any information.

The recent election was heavily monetized. How was the APC able to cope?

The issue of money in our politics is quite disturbing and, if we must sustain our democracy, we must address this ugly trend. I must admit that the APC was also involved in the money but politics but nothing compared to what the PDP did. However, we were able to survive it because we were involved in a lot of planning and strategic spending. Also the fact that we had supporters who were committed to our course further reduced the burden of spending.

May 15, 2015
Aondoakaa: INEC, Jega must not succumb to blackmail over Card Reader

A former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mike Aondoakaa, yesterday asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, not to succumb to blackmail to drop the use of Card Reader for Saturday’s polls.

He said the Card Reader has added credibility to the nation’s electoral process.

He said those opposed to the device are troublemakers, who used to rig elections in the past.

Aondoakaa, who spoke with The Nation in Abuja, said he would soon announce his next political move after leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

He advised security agents not allow themselves to be used.

He said: “INEC and Jega must not succumb to blackmail by troublemakers to drop the use of Card Reader for governorship poll.

“Card Reader works well, it gives credibility to the electoral process and it tells accurate number of accredited voters in any polling unit. The era of rigging, over voting or stuffing of ballot boxes is gone in our electoral history.

“To succumb to pressure is to return this nation to the dark days when votes did not count. Those who are asking for discontinuation of the use of Card Reader want to disrupt the electoral process.

“If President Goodluck Jonathan can accept the use of card reader, no one can come now and ask for its drop for governorship poll.”

Aondoakaa added: “Where election cannot hold as a result of disruption of the process against card reader, INEC should postpone the poll till the following day.”

On security agents, he cautioned them against being used to tamper with the electoral process.

His words: “Security agents should not allow themselves to be used. They should continue to be vigilant so that this process will make us to stand tall in international community.

“That is what President Jonathan has done and no one should come below him to lower our democratic standard.”

Responding to a question, Aondoakaa said: “I have left PDP, but I am still consulting with my people on my next political move”.

April 8, 2015
INEC exposes reasons Card Readers failed

•‘Nail polish, adhesive used to sabotage device’

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has maintained that it will not allow manual accreditation for Saturday elections.

The commission, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said unlike in the presidential and National Assembly elections where the commission relaxed the rules, Card Readers will be used for governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.

Consequently, the commission also revealed that it has worked on identified challenges that faced the operation of the Card Reader during the last elections.

The statement by the commission’s secretary, Mrs. Augusta C. Ogakwu, explained that there was no way the commission would suddenly replace the provisions in the books.

The statement reads: “The INEC wishes to inform all Nigerians that Card Readers will be used for the April 11, 2015 elections.

“The provision of the guidelines for the conduct of the 2015 general elections, which outlined what is to be done if a Card Reader fails and cannot be replaced by the commission within a specified time frame (i.e. reschedule the election to the next day), will be enforced.

“The relaxation of the guideline on March 28, 2015 was only with respect to the presidential and National Assembly elections held on that date.

“The commission has reviewed the operation of the Card Reader in the March 28 elections, identified the challenges and has taken adequate measures to address them.”

But, some senior security officers have alleged that nail polish and adhesive were used by many members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to sabotage the operation of Card Readers during the March 28 elections.

The officers, who craved anonymity, said superglue or transparent nail polish when applied to fingerprints creates new prints, thereby distorting original fingerprints.

Investigations also revealed that superglue contains Cyanoacrylate, which is a generic name for a family of strong and fast-acting adhesives.

It was also found that the vapours of Cyanoacrylate react with the chemicals that are found in fingerprints.

One of the security officials said most voters deliberately applied the substances to make the Card Readers unable to detect their fingerprints.

“They robbed these substances to protect their fingerprints. The superglue and nail polish distorted their fingerprints and rendered the Card Readers unable to capture them.

“This gave room for agitation and confusion. In the process, INEC resorted to manual accreditation. The manual accreditation gave birth to manipulation and irregularities,” a senior security officer said.

He added: “They used it and it worked. They are also planning to use it on Saturday for the governorship and House of Assembly elections. They will create enough confusion that will compel INEC to revert to manual accreditation.”

He asked electoral officials to check fingerprints thoroughly before placing them on the card readers for identification and accreditation.

“INEC officials must do additional work. They should examine fingerings of each voter physically before using Card Readers on them. Otherwise, the failure rate of Card Readers in the next polls will be worse than the last election,” he said.

April 7, 2015
‘Rectify problem with Card Reader’

THE Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to correct the anomalies associated with the Card Reader to avoid a repeat during Saturday elections.

In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, in Abuja, the CNPP described the Card Reader as an antidote to ballot-snatching and other electoral malpractices.

The statement reads: “We salute the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for insisting on the imperative of the use of the Card Reader for the April 11 governorship and House of Assembly elections.

“In other words, INEC has withdrawn the guideline, which it issued on March 28, 2015 in respect of the presidential and National Assembly elections held on that date; which gave room for padding of votes in certain states that nearly marred the peaceful elections.

“It is our considered view that the Card Reader is an antidote to ballot box stuffing, ballot box snatching and padding of votes; hence ultimate reduction of electoral malpractices and all manner of irregularities.

“On this count, we call on our member political parties to instruct their candidates to place the collective interest of our dear nation above personal political survival by using and relying only on the Card Reader.”

April 7, 2015
April 1st Our Girls; One INEC team + One Card Reader/50-100 voters pls; Single day elections in 2019

Our Girls are still missing since April 15th 2014. Soon it will be one tragic year. Congratulations to our troops and the supreme sacrifice some have had to make against Boko Haram. We wish they had acted one year ago.

No results are announced by INEC at my press time Monday Am. Nigeria is still afraid of exit polls, which are part of the international political anticorruption arsenal. Why did INEC not quickly collate and announce ‘INEC authorized results’ at local collation centres immediately? We pray that INEC will not be oppressed by the traditional demons against democracy as in the recent past. The election was not ‘pure’. There were unacceptable incidents of calculated and callous violence, stolen report sheets, bombs, attacks, gunfire, deaths and injuries, violence against the media and a fatal boat incident.

However it ‘appears’ largely free and fair except for some very difficult orchestrated elections in violence-prone states. Voting should be a pleasant experience and not a dangerous punishment. Patience, perseverance and pragmatism are necessities in Nigerian elections and punishment for violence perpetrators. Voters will not swallow false results of a sham election rigged in their state.

Exposure to scorching sun or tropical rain, no seats, no shade, no toilet facilities, was the order of the voting day. Worldwide we see elections where voters spend seconds or minutes for accreditation with driving licence or passport or voter’s ID and immediately vote with a choice of several curtained-off polling booths for secret voting. In this last election on the March 28 in my polling booth, INEC arrived at 8.45pm and we spend from 9.15am to 3pm being accredited as one card reader died on us and this was not replaced until the second one died at 1.06pm. Even then, it took the pressure of the citizens and a citizen’s vehicle to take INEC officials to HQ for replacements, which arrived at 2pm to accredit the remaining 100 out of about 280 voters. As usual in Nigeria, it was exhausting, time consuming and economically costly.

I personally wiped my thumb and the card reader spent just 2 or 3 seconds to accredit me. However the person ahead of me was accredited on his ninth digit attempt. But even that took just about one minute. Of the nearly 300 voters only three or so had to be done manually. What are the lessons and corrections that can be offered? The card reader was a ‘qualified’ success preventing duplication, multiple voting, fake cards and post-voting stuffing of ballot boxes. The difficulty was when the card readers failed but card readers are multi-purpose anti-corruption device. In some cases where it failed the card reader was maliciously or politically crippled. Below are my conclusions or Post Mortem Findings.

Post Mortem finding 1: The spending of four hours lining up for one three person INEC team to accredit over 150-500 people is too long and wrong. We in our station were ‘lucky’ as only 300 turned up out of 800 expected. Many voters had registered but only worked there and could not come to vote from home-lost votes. Surely in order to ‘Speed up the process,’ Nigeria have one INEC card reader/50 cards to speed up the accreditation process. The card reader is to be hailed as it severely limited vote rigging and voter number fixing.

Post Mortem finding 2: A planned three INEC staff for 200-500 voters are unimaginably poor management. We eventually had two sets of three INEC staff. INEC needs to treat Nigerians better and plan ‘three INEC staff /100 voters’ in each polling station.

POST Mortem finding 3: Nigeria must have a single INEC election with one accreditation and same afternoon election of all offices: President, National Assembly, Governors and State Assembly. Nigerians and Nigeria cannot afford to shut down twice for elections at the cost and loss of many billions to businesses and government. Nigerians should not be forced to go through the mental, physical and financial stress of an 8-12 hour election, more than one day every 4 years. This will halve the INEC budget for police security, travel and vehicle transport hire, and voter register reproduction for the second election day and also save parties 50% of party agent hire fees and other monitoring expenses. INEC can apply some of the billions in ‘saved’ funds to hiring more INEC staff for a ‘one day election’, which will maximise the value of accreditation and queuing. It will cut wastage of time and energy and financial business losses and reduce security risks.

If allowed to function, The permanent voter card and the card reader remain the best things that have happened to ‘honest elections’ in Nigeria. Of course, no Card reader revolution can totally prevent the massed forces of evil political elements misusing their position and power to intimidate voters, buy voters’ thumbs or steal ballot boxes. These manifestations of maniacal acts of demonic anti-democracy vandalism often characterise struggling democracies where ‘one man-one vote’ democracy is subverted by ‘party and personal perpetuation’ at any evil price.

Serving politicians who have lost elections by legitimate means or had to use illegal means to ‘win’ the elections must ask themselves why they got it wrong? In four years’ time, 2019, when the electorate decides again, we do not want to be challenged by the same political arrogance, insulting electioneering behaviour and prolonged massive financial wrongdoing.

April 1, 2015
Mark commends peaceful election, flays card reader

President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, has said that the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday were largely peaceful in his constituency but expressed concern over the reported cases of malfunctioned card readers.

Senator Mark said after he cast his vote in Otukpo Ward 1, Otukpo, Benue State, on Saturday that the exercise was “generally peaceful and organised. The voters queued and complied with the rules”.

He however expressed worry over the malfunctioning of the card readers in some polling units even as he urged Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) to salvage the situation.

According to him; “The Otukpo Ward 1 to me is a very well organized polling unit. The people here have been on queue. I have no report of any failure or lapses. But the reports from some areas indicate that card readers have been malfunctioning.

A press statement signed by Mr. Paul Mumeh, the Chief Press Secretary to the President of the Senate, quoted Mark as saying, “This situation may not allow many people to participate in the elections. INEC should as a matter of urgency rise up to the challenge and salvage the situation.”

He therefore implored the people to remain calm, hoping that INEC officials would address the situation.

March 29, 2015
Jega: Those afraid of card reader are electoral offenders

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega Wednesday assured that his commission has made all the necessary preparation for transparent elections this Saturday and on April 11.

He said although his commission has evolved various electronic measures aimed at limiting fraud in the nation’s elections, it will delay the application till 2019, but will only apply the card reader this time. He said those opposed to the deployment of card reader in this year’s elections were those who feel their fraudulent conduct will be detected.

“To my mind, and to many in INEC, this is one of the many reasons many people are opposing the use of the card reader. Because a clear way that they had used in the past to somehow get away with fraudulent conduct in elections, will now be made difficult, because if they do, it is very likely now to be established.

“The use of the card reader will help us address some of the concerns about the alteration of, particularly accreditation figures in order to fraudulently advantage to a candidate and disadvantage the other candidate.

‘Information about accreditation, which will be saved on the card reader and which will be transmitted to our data base, will be useful in term of addressing irregularities, when the emerge in relation to alteration of accreditation figures,” Jega said.

The INEC Chairman spoke in Abuja Wednesday while inaugurating the Civil Society Organizations’ (CSOs) Situation Room, where CSO representatives, under the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, will receive and analyze reports of the elections.

He assured that the commission has done “everything possible to ensure that the 2015 general elections are successful, and in particular, we have done everything possible to ensure that we have prepared operationally and logistically for the conduct of the elections, we have worked very closely with security agencies and we have received assurances, through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, and most specifically from the Inspector General of Police (IGP), because the police has a lead role in terms of providing security for the elections.

“These reassurances make us comfortable that all that need to be done has been done to ensure the successful conduct of the elections.

Jega gave a picture of some of the improvements the commission has made since the last election in the movement of material and men to minimize hitches experienced in previous elections and its preparation for this one.

“Beginning from today, we are commencing the rolling out, leading to Saturday, the Election Day. Before now, all the non-sensitive materials had been taken to all the local government offices. Form today, the sensitive materials will be received from the vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and taken to our state offices, accompanied by agents of political parties.

“Then, later this evening, till tomorrow morning, these will be distributed various local governments, and will also be accompanied by parties agents. At the state level, we expect that as from tomorrow evening, up until Friday afternoon, all the materials taken to the local governments will also be distributed to the ward levels.

“At each ward level, we have established what we call Registration Area Centre (RAC). We have equipped it reasonably to ensure that both our staff and security agencies spend the few hours of the night there, in readiness to deploy very early in the morning to the various polling units in each of those wards.”

On collation and presentation of results, Jega said the commission will use the same method it applied in previous elections. He said the although the commission had tested the process of electronic transmission of results, having used it in some elections in the past, it will not use it in the 2015 general elections because of the reaction of some people to the introduction of card reader in this elections.

“We will not put that electronic transmission of results to use in the 2015 general elections. We consider the reactions from innovation of using the card reader and we felt that we should just, cope with that rather than create additional challenges about electronic transmission of results. And particularly, the memory of that in the Kenya election is still fresh in the memory of many.

“So, we felt that lets keep piloting it and improving upon it beyond 2015. Hopefully, by 2019 general elections, the commission will get there where it can do full electronic transmission of results. Even though we are not going to do electronic transmission of results, we have tried to address a concern, which was expressed after the 2011 general elections, with regards to the transparency of the collation of the results.

The coordinator of the Situation Room and Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Clement Nwankwo urged INEC to do all within its powers to ensure that it improves on all the lapses experienced in past elections.

He commended INEC for its efforts so far, noting that there was a substantial improvement on its preparation as against the experience in past elections. he urged the military to realize that its role is to give back-up security to the police, whose main duty is to provide security during elections.

He warned the soldiers against intimidating electorates or acting in manners that betrays it sympathy for a particular party or candidates, noting that soldiers are not to be seen close to the polling booths.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba also assured that the police was ready to provide adequate security during the elections.”

IGP, who was represented at the event by the Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, said the police is ready for the elections.

“Our men are adequately motivated.

“We are ready to go. Where we do not have sufficient men on the ground, we are working with other security agencies. We are even preparing for the 2019 elections for those who feel the country will not exist after this year’s elections,” he said.

He said unlike previous experience, men to be deployed for electoral duties will be paid their allowances before departure.

He also assured that the police will pay attention to the security of the Youth Corps members and ad-hoc staff to be deployed for the election.

March 25, 2015