Card Readers: Nasarawa traditional ruler calls for re-education of INEC staff

Isah Agwai I, the emir of Lafia and president, Nasarawa State council of chiefs, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to re-educate their staff on the use of the card reader.

Mr. Mustapha, who spoke in Garaku during the mock elections exercise, said the call was necessary due to the inefficiency of some of the staff during the fingerprint verification.

Mr. Mustapha, who was represented by Yahaya Bello, Dan Makoyo of Lafia, said the demonstration by INEC had dispelled rumours and fears of the public around the card readers.

The traditional ruler scored INEC 70 per cent in the exercise. He urged the public to support INEC to ensure the success of the exercise.

“So far the exercise has shown that INEC is fully prepared only for the fingerprint verification which the body needs to sensitize its staff on for efficiency,” he said.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of Kogi State, Hussaini Halilu, who was in Nasarawa to monitor the mock election, said the card readers were functional and called on the electorates to turn out in order to test their card readers.

“As you can see the card reader is working but in case it fails to capture the finger print of a voter, the next thing is for us to check the INEC voter registration list to confirm whether the Permanent Voters Card is from INEC or not,” he said.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of Plateau, Godwin Kwanga, who also monitored the mock election, also restated the commitment of the commission to conduct free and fair elections through the use of the card readers.

When PREMIUM TIMES visited Garaku Primary school polling unit, it observed that it took two to 10 minutes for eight people to be accredited because of the machine’s failure to quickly recognize the finger prints of the voter.