by Ranti Joseph
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described as “a huge embarrassment” the Card Reader issues experienced by President Goodluck Jonathan while getting accredited yesterday at his Otuoke Ward in Bayelsa state.
This is contained in a statement issued by Olisa Metuh, the party’s National Publicity Secretary in Abuja on Saturday.
The statement added that Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state, James Ngilari of Adamawa and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi, among others, also experienced similar glitch. It then called for thorough explanation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It contended that the poor working of the Card Readers in the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections across the country could have been avoided adding that it would have been so if INEC had listened to sound advice from well-meaning individuals, organisations and the PDP regarding the deployment of the machines without proper testing.
The statement added that the last minute resort to manual accreditation by INEC, hours into the exercise against its earlier guidelines, clearly showed the failure of the system.
“The unfortunate development is a vindication of our earlier position that as good as the idea of Card Readers is, it was too virgin to be successfully used in a general election without proper testing. This is especially in an environment as ours that is not entirely digitally proficient,” it said.
It expressed concern about the development, given the avowed commitment of the President Jonathan-led PDP administration to hitch-free, fair and credible electoral process charging the electoral commission to take urgent steps within the law, to ensure that no willing and qualified voter was disenfranchised.
The statement urged Nigerians to remain calm in the overall interest of the nation. It frowned at reported cases of accreditation of under-aged persons in some states, especially in the Northern part of the country. The PDP statement called on INEC to ensure that such unqualified persons were not allowed to vote, but also to prosecute its officials involved in the crime.
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