INEC exposes reasons Card Readers failed

Nail polish, adhesive used to sabotage device
THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has
maintained that it will not allow manual accreditation for
Saturday elections.
The commission, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said unlike
in the presidential and National Assembly elections where the
commission relaxed the rules, Card Readers will be used for
governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.
Consequently, the commission also revealed that it has worked
on identified challenges that faced the operation of the Card
Reader during the last elections.
The statement by the commission’s secretary, Mrs. Augusta C.
Ogakwu, explained that there was no way the commission
would suddenly replace the provisions in the books.
The statement reads: “The INEC wishes to inform all Nigerians
that Card Readers will be used for the April 11, 2015 elections.
“The provision of the guidelines for the conduct of the 2015
general elections, which outlined what is to be done if a Card
Reader fails and cannot be replaced by the commission within a
specified time frame (i.e. reschedule the election to the next
day), will be enforced.
“The relaxation of the guideline on March 28, 2015 was only
with respect to the presidential and National Assembly
elections held on that date.
“The commission has reviewed the operation of the Card Reader
in the March 28 elections, identified the challenges and has
taken adequate measures to address them.”
But, some senior security officers have alleged that nail polish
and adhesive were used by many members of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) to sabotage the operation of Card
Readers during the March 28 elections.
The officers, who craved anonymity, said superglue or
transparent nail polish when applied to fingerprints creates new
prints, thereby distorting original fingerprints.
Investigations also revealed that superglue contains
Cyanoacrylate, which is a generic name for a family of strong
and fast-acting adhesives.
It was also found that the vapours of Cyanoacrylate react with
the chemicals that are found in fingerprints.
One of the security officials said most voters deliberately
applied the substances to make the Card Readers unable to
detect their fingerprints.
“They robbed these substances to protect their fingerprints.
The superglue and nail polish distorted their fingerprints and
rendered the Card Readers unable to capture them.
“This gave room for agitation and confusion. In the process,
INEC resorted to manual accreditation. The manual accreditation
gave birth to manipulation and irregularities,” a senior security
officer said.
He added: “They used it and it worked. They are also planning
to use it on Saturday for the governorship and House of
Assembly elections. They will create enough confusion that will
compel INEC to revert to manual accreditation.”
He asked electoral officials to check fingerprints thoroughly
before placing them on the card readers for identification and
accreditation.
“INEC officials must do additional work. They should examine
fingerings of each voter physically before using Card Readers
on them. Otherwise, the failure rate of Card Readers in the next
polls will be worse than the last election,” he said.