Ondo poll: Akeredolu laments malfunctioning card readers, raps INEC

Accreditation and voting

Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, the APC governorship candidate in Saturday’s poll, on Saturday lamented the malfunctioning of some smart card readers deployed for the exercise.

Akeredolu, who spoke at his Owo residence after casting his vote, also said INEC ought to have test run the devices before election day.

He said reports had indicated that some of the devices were malfunctioning.

The APC candidate, however, said that his major concern was the commission ensuring free, credible and fair election.

The PDP flagbearer, Eyitayo Jegede and his Alliance for Democracy counterpart, Wole Oke, had also complained about the malfunctioning card readers.

The card reader had also rejected Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s thumbprint when he wanted to vote at his Ward 7, Unit 20 Polling Unit in Ondo West Local Government Area.

But INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr Segun Agbaje, said the commission has more than 250 spare smart card readers to replace those malfunctioning.

“I have called the Head of Department of ICT to get smart cards for areas with smart card challenges and very soon they will them.

“ Card reader is not a major challenge because it can be addressed within 10 to 20 minutes; we have over 250 smart card readers for exchange in case of malfunction,’’ Agbaje had said.

No fewer than 1,280,580 voters with Permanent Voter Cards were expected to vote in the election out of the 28 contestants.

Although 1,659,186 voters were registered for the election, only 378,606 collected their PVCs.(

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