The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has thrown more lights on why it insisted that it will use Smart Card Readers (ACRs) for the March/April elections in the country, saying that apart from ensuring electoral credibility, it would also bring about other benefits.

In a statement by its Chief press secretary, Kayode Robert Idowu, INEC detailed four main objectives of the card reader. They are:

• To verify Permanent Voter cards (PVCs) presented by voters at polling units and ensure that they are genuine, INEC-issued (not cloned) cards. From the reports on Saturday’s exercise, this objective was achieved 100 per cent.

• To biometrically authenticate the person who presents a PVC at the polling unit and ensure that he/she is the legitimate holder of the card. In this regard, there were a few issues in some states during the public demonstration. Overall, 59% of voters who turned out for the demonstration had their fingerprints successfully authenticated. But the Commission, in agreement with registered political parties, had provided in the approved Guidelines for the conduct of the 2015 elections that where biometric authentication of a legitimate holder of a genuine PVC becomes challenging, there could be physical authentication of the person and completion of an Incident Form, to allow the person to vote.

• The SCRs provide disaggregated data of accredited voters in male/female and elderly/youth categories – a disaggregation that is vital for research and planning purposes, but which INEC until now had been unable to achieve. The demonstration on Saturday fully served this objective.

• The SCR sends the data of all accredited voters to INEC’s central server, equipping the Commission to be able to audit figures subsequently filed by polling officials at the PU and, thereby, be able to determine if fraudulent alterations were made. The public demonstration also succeeded wholly in this regard.

Only yesterday, Monday, 09^th March 2015, top officers of the commission met to consider field reports from the public demonstration of Smart Card Readers (SCRs) conducted in 12 states on Saturday, March 07^th 2015. The states were Rivers and Delta (South-South), Kano and Kebbi (North-West), Anambra and Ebonyi (South East), Ekiti and Lagos (South West), Bauchi and Taraba (North East) as well as Niger and Nasarawa (North Central).

The Commission took a serious view of the high rate of the SCRs’ failure to authenticate voters’ fingerprints in some areas, particularly in Ebonyi State, and has decided to thoroughly investigate the cause; as well as repeat the public demonstration in that state. This demonstration will be conducted in the particular Registration Area involved in the last exercise, namely Izzi Unuhu (Abakaliki Local Government Area); as well as in Ibii/Oziza Registration Area (Afikpo North LGA). The repeat demonstration will be on Saturday, March 14^th 2015.

INEC said that it is satisfied that the use of SCRs in the 2015 general elections will add tremendous transparency and credibility to the accreditation process on Election Day.

The Commission reassured the public that it will do everything necessary to ensure that the processes of the elections are seamless, free, fair, credible and peaceful. [myad]

Director of media and publicity for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation, Garba Shehu has exposed what he called “the deceit, squander mania and looting associated with this (Goodluck Jonathan) administration.”
Garba Shehu, who addressed newsmen today in Abuja began with the lie told by the government regarding the East-West Road, saying that it is on record that work started on the road in 2006, under former President Obasanjo but that due to the activities of Niger Delta militants then, work stopped midway and the initial contractor Julius Berger left the site.
He said that in 2009, work was resumed on the road but was given to three construction firms in order to hasten its completion by 2011 as anticipated.
“It is pertinent to note that appropriations were made for the construction in 2009 and 2010, but after Yar’Adua’s death, work stopped on the road and money set aside was diverted. I have gone to this length to illustrate to you that the construction of this road has lingered due to the lack-lustre approach of the Jonathan administration.
“Their initial promise to complete the road by 2013 never materialised and till today the East-West road is yet to be completed.”
Garba Shehu beamed his searchlight on the Second Niger Bridge and that contrary to the strident efforts of the Jonathan team to assure the people of the South East that the Second Niger Bridge has been awarded and now under construction, the truth is that the PDP administration is only deceiving the people.
“If you may remember, President Jonathan anchored his 2011 campaign in the South East on the construction of the Second Niger Bridge, but four years down the line, we are now realising that the bridge is still at the drawing board table and may not be realised after all under Jonathan. We recall that the money set aside for the project was channelled into the Presidential election of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The main problem with the Second Niger Bridge and which the Jonathan administration has failed to respond to is why public private partnership should be adopted in constructing the bridge at triple the real cost, whereas government is in a position to bear the full cost, more so as the project falls under the social contract between the government and the people. If this arrangement is not reversed, and the Federal Government takes full responsibility for the funding, the implication is that the South East people will perennially remain at the mercy of the investors for a period not limited to 25 years in the first instance.”
On women’s rights and participation in government, Garba Shehu referred to the fact that the Presidential candidate of APC, General Muhammadu Buhari has made women as pivotal to the change he envisaged for the country, quoting Buhari as having said severally: “I will recognise and protect women empowerment and gender equality with special emphasis on economic activities in the rural areas… Women all over the world are playing an ever increasing role in moving their nations forward both in and outside government… In keeping with the times, my government will ensure that Nigerian women are given the opportunity to rise and play an even more prominent role in moving our great nation forward.”
The media and publicity chieftain of the APC presidential campaign organisation said that said that General Buhari has shown that he is not a male chauvinist and that he has a definite and robust programme for women if elected President.
On corruption, Garba Shehu described it as the major hindrance to the National Development, adding that General Buhari, with a sterling record of fighting corruption, will spare no effort in ensuring that Nigerians have value for their commonwealth.
“To underscore the importance which His Excellency, General Buhari attaches to the cankerworm known as corruption, permit me to paraphrase a portion of his speech at the recent visit to Chatham House London: “On corruption, there will be no confusion as to where I stand. Corruption will have no place and the corrupt will not be appointed into my administration. First and foremost, we will plug the holes in the budgetary process. Revenue producing entities such as NNPC and Customs and Excise will have one set of books only. Their revenues will be publicly disclosed and regularly audited. “The institutions of state dedicated to fighting corruption will be given independence and prosecutorial authority without political interference.” He said that openness in employment under APC government will be the norm, “unlike the current arrangement where you need a godfather/godmother, and sometimes you need to gratify government officials to get employment. Only recently over 300 staff were recruited by the National Universities Commission without due process and transparency.”
Garba Shehu said that Mrs Buhari, as First Lady, will not be in the habit of having agents in MDAs for the purpose of collecting kickbacks and gratifications for her.
On innsecurity, Garba Shehu regretted what he called “the devastating effect of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, and general insecurity pervading the land” saying that it is an issue that has continued to bewilder Nigerians but that the situation was in existence simply as a result of lax attitude of the government.
The insurgency, he explained, would not have continued to fester if appropriate steps were taken earlier, quoting General Buhari as having said in his speech at the Chatham House: “Let me assure you that if I am elected President, the world will have no cause to worry about Nigeria as it has had to recently; that Nigeria will return to its stabilising role in West Africa; and that no inch of Nigerian territory will ever be lost to the enemy because we will pay special attention to the welfare of our soldiers in and out of service, we will give them adequate and modern arms and ammunitions to work with, we will improve intelligence gathering.”
On South East region, Garba Shehu recalled that some German partners were to be engaged to build standard airports across the country including Enugu but that along the line, President Jonathan discarded the plan.
“Today, what is being trumpeted at as Enugu International Airport is a shoddy job done through direct labour and at inflated cost.
“To further demonstrate that President Jonathan has serially failed the South East, we want to put it on record that late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had commenced and indeed reached an advanced stage in the dredging of River Niger, and construction of Onitsha seaport. Regrettably this was again truncated by Jonathan as till today the seaport which is expected to promote economic development in the region and beyond is yet to take off and the dredging stopped.”
Garba Shehu restated General Buhari’s total commitment to the peaceful coexistence of all Nigerians, as well as to the growth and nurturing of democracy in our land.
He added that APC presidential flag bearer is also committed to the peace pact which he co-signed with President Jonathan in Abuja even as he said that the General will continue to use any available forum to impress on his followers on the need for the path of peace at all times.
“And this is in spite of serial violations of the latter by the other side. Above all, General Buhari and his administration would practice and promote politics of nationalism, patriotism, character, equity, accountability, religious/ethnic tolerance, morality, justice and fairness and service to humanity.” [myad]

All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State Chapter has accused the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan of descending into what it called the abyss of opprobrious indecency with the words and body language that have been coming from her recently, asking her husband, President Goodluck Jonathan to call her to order.
In a statement today signed by the party’s state publicity secretary, Senibo Chris Finebone, APC described the First Lady’s recent campaign address at rallies in Niger Delta region as “extremely shameful,” adding: “ordinarily, the APC would have remained amused at the futile comic relief her court-jestering was providing the serious political space and environment. But that cannot be the case when she has, in the past two weeks, descended into the abyss of opprobrious indecency with her words and body language.”
The APC said that it is worried now because, the First Lady has gone from personal insults and unprintable words on the APC Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari and now “foraging into areas where even angels fear to tread. By going beyond insulting General Buhari to taunting the section Buhari hails from as procreating uncontrollably, the APC wants to believe someone should caution Mrs. Patience Jonathan to be aware of the ensuing whirlwind that will result from the wind she is planting.
“The APC would like to inform Mrs. Jonathan that the Ivory Coast’s former first lady, Simone Gbagbo, has just been sentenced to 20 years in jail for her role in the violence that followed the 2010 elections in that country. This should be instructive to our First Lady that her utterances have far-reaching consequences, good or bad.
“And how she ends up in history remains her responsibility, meaning that she should hold herself responsible for whatever her verbal incontinence and indiscretion brings to her, now or in the future.”
“It is important to remind our dear First Lady that wars and conflicts have, sometimes, been caused by wrong people finding themselves in the right places as we seem to have now.  But when the bell tolls, everyone will answer according his or her deeds but not before the damage is already done and lives lost.
“However, it is the hope of the APC that Mr. President will do what any good husband does: call the wife to order. This will avert the fast growing anger building up in our brothers and sisters from the North who perceive her recent demeaning utterances as a collective insult. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine!” [myad]