(Updated)INEC Chairman Professor Attahiru Jega appeared before Nigeria’s Senate on Wednesday and insisted that his commission was ready for the February 14 Presidential elections .He reiterated his position that the elections were postponed due to security concerns raised by the National Security Adviser ,NSA,Col Sambo Dasuki who wrote a letter to INEC demanding postponement because security could not be guaranteed.
INEC’s insistence that it was ready has always been criticised by PDP stalwarts who have argued that with the crisis over distribution of PVCs ,the commission was not truly ready.
On Wednesday, however Jega stood his ground insisting that compared with its level of readiness for the 2011 elections, his commission was truly ready .He however admitted that the commission’s level of readiness was not 100 per cent.
Jega and his team made up of three commissioners and other staff of the commission were earlier admitted to the floor of the Senate after a motion move by the senate leader Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba which was seconded by the minority leader, Senator Gorge Akume.
Also, our correspondent reported that Jega’s team demonstrated how the Card Reader, which is the latest thorny issue, works.
Addressing the issue of Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) distribution, the INEC boss said the commission has reached the rate of 75.94 percent. He added that out of the 68 million PVCs about 66 million has been produced and promised that others would be ready before the election. He emphasized that the problem is not with PVC production but collection because people are not coming out for card collection.
Speaking on the card reader, Jega told the Senators that the card reader would add value to the electoral process. He said it is an offense not to use the card reader and assured that politicians buying or stealing PVCs will render them useless and disenfranchise the owners of the card. He also dismissed the issue of cloning the card as the card reader will not recognize any card not produced by INEC.
At the end of the briefing, technical staff of the commission did a test run of the card reader with PVCs belonging to several Senators.
Senate President David Mark in his remark said the lawmakers would do everything to assist INEC to conduct free, fair and transparent election. He said INEC and the Senators benefited from the interaction and hope that INEC would conduct elections that are internationally accepted. He thanked the INEC chairman for coming for the interaction.
Jega said adequate measures have been put in place and agreed to by political parties, in the unlikely event that the card reader or related gadget fails.
