A group called Move on Nigeria (MN) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Attahiru Jega, of plotting with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the elections scheduled for March 28 and April 11.
MN National Coordinator, Clem Aguiyi, alleged that Jega used insecurity as an excuse to shift the polls from February 14 and 28 whereas the INEC was not ready to conduct a credible ballot.
Beware of the military
The group accused Jega of bringing the military into the matter when Nigeria’s history is not enough lesson for him to keep the military out of the political process.
“Copious commentary has been made on the postponement of the 2015 elections and various motives tagged to it.
“Most Nigerians are currently unsure of what to believe as it is totally confounding for Jega to continually insist that security was the main thrust of the postponement whereas himself and INEC were not ready and are not ready for a free, fair and credible election,” Aguiyi said in a statement.
“Jega’s poor narrative surreptitiously draws the Nigerian military into the fray and for a country that has had its full dose of military disruptions it is ominous at the least to suggest that the military are beginning to fiddle with our democracy.
“Only Jega and Jega alone can guarantee the success or otherwise of the 2015 general elections.”
PVCs, fingerprints
Aguiyi said if had the polls been held as originally scheduled, over 26 million Nigerians would have been disenfranchised, since they have not been issued with their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
“The efficacy of the card readers that were to be deployed for the elections have not been tested and contingencies and protocols for mitigating real time challenges have also not been mapped out.
“When we interrogate further on all events surrounding this year’s election preparation, some startling revelations come to the fore.
“The guidelines for the collection of PVCs insist that the individual must collect the card personally and have his fingerprint match the records on the INEC database. This requirement ensured that collection of cards by proxies were not allowed.
“We have it on good authority that this requirement was not followed in the North East, North West and in Lagos, considered as APC strongholds. The INEC merely handed over the cards to local chiefs and APC party chieftains.
“This flagrantly negates the rules the INEC set for the collection of the cards and this undue advantage was not extended to other parts of the country, nor was it admitted as a new policy shift.”
MN argued that the need to scan fingerprints at the point of collection, juxtaposed with the number of collection points as indicated by the INEC, make it technically impossible for it to record the success rate published in the North East and North West.
Card readers, activity log
It reiterated that all card reader terminals have an activity log, and challenged the INEC to publish this log to show that all collected cards were scanned and finger printed.
“Let us understand the workings of the PVC system as envisioned by the INEC. A prospective voter goes to the accreditation point, and presents his card, which is inserted into the card reader.
“If the card is valid for the polling booth, it pops up the holder’s details, who is now expected to authenticate ownership by scanning his thumb print and same is matched against the biometric data embedded in the card reader.
“If the match is verified, the machine plays a loud ‘verified’ message, and if not, the card will play a ‘not verified’ message.
“This implies that everyone at the polling booth is galvanised to ensure that the integrity of the exercise is never compromised. This is indeed a credible plan and would ensure the integrity of the exercise if it works as intended.
“However, it is evident that being an electronic platform fraught with multiple failure points along its value chain, lucidly articulated contingency plans must be put in place to ensure a reliable exercise.”
New insight
MN accused Jega of coming up with a new insight on the handling of a card that was pronounced ‘not verified’ by the card reader machine at the point of voting.
This insight, it said, indicates that where a card is not verified at the polls due to an error, like unmatched finger print, the individual is to be given an incidence form to use as a methodology of voting in addition to the ‘not verified’ card.
The group said such a system implies that the cards hoarded by the people to whom the INEC handed over bulk cards can be used by designated third parties to vote without the need to validate the cards at polling stations.
This way, it argued, the main aim of subjecting Nigeria to PVC usage has been totally defeated as anyone can use it, claim unreadability and, with an incidence form proceed to vote, even outside the polling booth.
Alleged grand plot
The group alleged that all these are part of the grand plot by the INEC and the APC to rig the vote, and called on Nigerians to resist any attempt to short change them.
“This ties in to the grand plan to achieve a predetermined result and must be resisted by all persons that wish Nigeria well.
“If a card reader must be used for voting it must match with the fingerprint of the holder to be valid, otherwise we urge that the usage be discarded and resisted.
“The APC’s insistence on use of the card reader is because it already had a grand plan with the INEC on how to use the incidence form, alternate card readers and hoarded PVC to rig the election.
“The PDP will be naive to believe Jega and allow its head to be shaved in their absence,
“We reiterate that only Jega and Jega alone will guarantee free, fair and credible elections by purging himself of his bias and corrupt alliance with the APC.”
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