…….. says Osun and Ekiti results are ready
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said that the deployment of the card readers for the 2015 presidential elections recorded a huge success, saying that only 0.2 per cent of the card readers failed to read the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC).
He said a total of 150, 000 card readers were sent to the field, out of which 375 pieces, representing 0.25 percent, were reported to have malfunctioned necessitating the adoption of the manual accreditation option.
Speaking to journalists yesterday in Abuja on the assessment so far for the elections, the INEC boss also denied being under pressure to declare the elections inconclusive.
He also said that the use of the card readers which he described as ‘tremendous achievement,’ successfully addressed the issues of manipulation of election result, adding that Nigerians have for long lost hope in the manual system of accreditation due to its vulnerability to faults and manipulation by politicians.
“We are pleased that the election went well peacefully across the country, including the three north east states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, where there is Boko Haram insurgency. The card reader worked well in many polling units, but witnessed some hitches in few other places, which necessitated the adjustment of the INEC guidelines for the 2015 elections to allow for manual accreditation where the card readers fail to work”, he said.
Speaking further, Jega said the Presidential elections results of Ekiti and Osun states are ready, but said the commission would not announce any result from states until it has received the hard copy of such results from the collation officers.
He however said the results for so many other states are already at advanced stages of more than ninety per cent, adding that the collation officers for the states would soon be on their way to Abuja to submit the hard copies of the collated results.
While stating that collation of Presidential election results from the states would commence today by twelve noon, Jega commended Nigerians for their peaceful conduct and massive turnout during the elections.
He also dismissed the results circulated in the social media and the statement by the Director of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisations (PDPPCO), Femi Fani-Kayode, which claimed that President Goodluck Jonathan has defeated the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Mohammadu Buhari, in twenty three states.
He said that investigation is ongoing to unravel why and how the card readers failed to work in the polling units where it failed to read the PVCs which the commission issued to voters.
He refuted claims that he and INEC were under any pressure to declare election inconclusive, adding that results of the elections will be announced within 48 hours from the time polling ended.