FILE PHOTO: INEC officials with ballot papersPhoto: Idowu Ogunleye
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday said that only 293,072 voters were accredited for the April 11 governorship election in Rivers.
NAN recalls that a total number of 1,029, 102 votes was declared by the returning officer for the election, Mr Faraday Osasere Oruwese, with the PDP candidate, Nyesom Wike, emerging as winner.
Mrs Abimbola Oladunjoye, an Assistant Director in the Information Communication Technology (ICT), who also doubled as the Head of Data Management Unit of INEC, gave the information while being led in evidence by Counsel to the petitioner, Mr Akinlolu Olujimi, (SAN).
Oladunjoye, who gave a brief explanation of how the card reader machine works, said that the information of every voter automatically downloaded into the INEC data base during individual accreditation.
“I am aware that the commission took a decision that the smart card reader should be used for accreditation on governorship election.
“On election day, every voter is suppose to come to the polling unit with his or her voters card. “The Incident Form is issued to a voter when the card reader cannot successfully accredit him or her”.
“The server was available for the card reader data uploading throughout the period of the election and was shut down six weeks after the election,” she said.
When cross-examined by INEC counsel, Mr Onyechi Ikpeazu, (SAN), Oladunjoye said that the card reader machine used for the presidential election was the same used for governorship poll.
According to her, the only issue in the card reader machine is that the machine was only reconfigured before the governorship election.
She also said that if a voter card was damaged, the card reader machine might not be able to recognise it, adding that, if it was dirty, there was no problem on the issue of recognition.
“If a card is …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
