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PDP petitions INEC over card-reader lapses, meets commission

By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja
10 March 2015   |   3:30 pm
THE leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) disclosed Tuesday that it had submitted its observations on the testing of the card readers conducted last Saturday to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

SECONDUS

The party, which insisted that the card readers must be free from error and put in  perfect condition, also hinted that it would meet the electoral body to discuss the hitches it observed during the mock accreditation where the card reader was first applied.

Addressing journalists at the PDP national secretariat Tuesday, the party’s Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus, asked INEC to address the non-uniformity in the finger print sensitivity level of ‎the card reader  machines, particularly as they relate to different parts of the country.

He noted that, ‎during the test run of the card reader machines, persons residing in areas where the machine operated at high sensitivity level found the process of accreditation very difficult while those at areas where the machines operated at low sensitivity level found the accreditation process very easy.

Secondus said: “Based on our investigations and what we observed during ‎the test run, the machine have some defects which should be corrected by INEC and those that manufactured them before the elections.   INEC should not be carried away by rhetorics and propaganda published by the opposition. It is a matter of technical details which must be taken very seriously. We must not politicise the matter at all. “

Explaining the motive for meeting INEC and submitting PDP’s observations, Secondus said: “We will submit our observations to INEC on the card readers test run, that is if it has not been submitted already. And we will be meeting with INEC in physical terms anytime from now.”

The PDP also asked INEC to investigate the rejection of the PVCs‎ of some persons during the test run of the card readers declaring that they might be the ones said to have been cloned by the All Progressives Congress (APC) recently by the Directorate of Security Services (DSS).

Secondus said: “Nigerians would recall that sometime late last year, the DSS acting on a tip off stormed an office belonging to the APC in Lagos and recovered evidence that the party had indeed started cloning PVCs and also forging other sensitive election materials.

“During last Saturday’s test run, some of the card readers presented in some parts of the country were discovered to be cloned. The PDP reiterates its warning to Nigerians and the security agencies to be vigilant to forestall the evil agenda of the APC,” he added.

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