The Independent National Electoral Commission says it will announce its decision on the violence and malfunctioning of the card readers in some polling units in parts of the country.
INEC’s Commissioner in charge of Voter Education, Festus Okoye, announced this in Abuja while giving an update on the ongoing Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The card reader was reported to have failed in some polling units in different parts of the country, with the electoral officials resorting to using the voter register to authenticate the affected voters.
Also, a number of deaths were reported following the outbreak of violence in some states, especially Rivers State, where a soldier was said to have been killed during a clash between troops and hoodlums in the Abonema area of the state.
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Mr Okoye restated INEC’s position on the directive regarding the use of card reader.
“It was made very clear that the use of the smart card readers is mandatory. Therefore, no staff of the Commission or any ad-hoc staff of the Commission is permitted in whatever guise to deliberately refuse to use the smart card readers for the conduct of elections.”
He added that the commission has received field reports of violence, burning of ballot papers in Lagos, Rivers and Anambra States.
He explained that the Commission has directed the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and the officials on the ground in the affected states to submit their “first-hand reports in relation to some of these incidents.”
“We are still receiving reports relating to incidents in some states of the federation but we have received reports relating to incidents in Akuku Toru and Bonny Local Government Areas of Rivers State,” he added.
