Card reader: Fayose confronts INEC, police, DSS with video evidence

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele
Fayose, on Tuesday, confronted the Independent National Electoral
Commission with video evidence of pre-loading of card readers in the
state.

The challenge came a day after a
National Commissioner with INEC, Mrs Aminat Zakari, challenged the
governor to prove allegations that she had conspired with three others
to pre-load card readers, supply faulty card readers and provide ballot
papers for stuffing of ballot boxes.

Fayose also tackled the Commissioner of
Police, Mr Ahmed Bello and the Director of the Department of State
Services, Mrs Promise Ihenacho, for allegedly deploying security aides
of former governor Kayode Fayemi to Ekiti State to rig the July 14
governorship election.

The governor pointed out that Fayemi’s
ex-Chief Security Officer, Hakeem Abiola,  and former Aide de camp,
Adeyemi Ajayi, were already in the state to coordinate indiscriminate
arrest of the members of the opposition.

Fayose spoke at a town hall meeting
organised by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room for governorship
candidates in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday.

The Chairman on the occasion, Mr Clement
Nwakwo, said the essence of the meeting was to extract assurances from
INEC, security agencies and candidates that the coming election would be
credible.

He said, “We are going to hold INEC
accountable for whatever happens and that is why it is good for the
security to be helpful and we know they won’t default in this regard.”

The governor tendered video evidence of
people allegedly pre-loading card readers in Akure ahead of the July 14
governorship election to the National Commissioner in charge of Ekiti,
Osun and Oyo states, Mr Solomon Soyebi.

Fayose said, “This is the evidence of
people pre-loading card readers in Akure. Any officer who is seen to be
biased should be relieved of any sensitive assignment.”

But dismissing the video, Soyebi said
the card readers to be used for the election were already in Ekiti and
had not been configured.

“I know the information will come to
you, but they are fake. The card readers will only start working on the
day of the election. A lot of people will be giving you information, a
lot of them will be fake,” he said.

Also, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakub, described the governor’s allegations as untrue and baseless.

Yakub in a statement by his Chief Press
Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, stressed that it was impossible for anyone
to rig the election in favour of any candidate.

Rather than malign them at press
conferences, Yakub urged the governor to make any evidence of wrongdoing
available to the Commission for appropriate action.”

“We wish to emphasise that it is
impossible for the Commission’s officials, any individual or group for
that matter to pre-load the Smart Card Readers or provide ballot papers
for stuffing as alleged,” he said.

Yakub explained that the SCRs performed
three functions: identifying, verifying and authenticating the voter and
the PVC, adding that it could only function on the election day.

“In addition to the results sheets that
we issue to party agents at the Polling Units and at every level of
collation, the Commission also deliberately introduced Form EC60E to
show election results at the Polling Units, which is the most important
level. This form is pasted at every Polling Unit after collation,” he
added.

INEC reiterated its resolve to conduct a credible, free and fair election that would be a model for other elections in Nigeria.





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