By Adeola Tukuru
Abuja
Election Monitor, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct forensic audit in areas where smart card reader are said to have failed.
It’s National Coordinator, Abiodun Ajijola, said this in Abuja at the public presentation of the 2017 Anambra State governorship election observation report.
According to Mr. Ajijola, it was clear that in many locations where the card reader supposedly failed, the polling officials did not follow INEC guidelines on the use of Smart Card Readers.
He explained that there is no provision in INEC’s guidelines that directs electoral officials to resort to manual accreditation in the event that smart card reader failed. .
“The commission should check the card readers to determine their functionality. Any card readers found to be functioning properly should be noted and the polling officials in charge should be brought to its own staff for this critical function among others,” he said.
According to him, the commission should reconsider the use of AD-hoc personnel as Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs)
“Our recommendation is that INEC should look inwards.”
