The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday said it is prepared to deal decisively with anyone planning to truncate the
2019 general election.
The commission also gave a hint that it may be registering
additional nine political parties before the next general elections.
The Chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, assured the
leadership of political parties that INEC would continue to maintain its
integrity as election managers.
Speaking at a quarterly meeting with Chairmen and Secretaries
of 68 registered political parties in the country, Yakubu said the commission
is aware that as the country approaches the 2019 general election, there would
be a lot of interest in its activities "for virtuous and malicious reasons."
He said INEC had anticipated the challenges far
ahead of the mischief makers.
"Only a few days ago, Nigerians were legitimately
outraged by the image of blank PVC advertised by an offshore company for
purchase in the open market. Within a few hours, we contacted the online
platform responsible for the advert which promptly removed it. What Nigerians
may not know is that it was not a single advertiser. A second company was
forced to remove a similar advert, and this morning, a third one was also withdrawn.
"We have extracted a commitment from
Alibaba.com to stop this unwholesome practice forthwith and will continue to
work with the security agencies to track down those responsible for the advert
as well as any prospective buyers of which there are none so far. We suspect
that many dubious enterprises will keep trying keep operating in openly and in
the dark web.
"We have anticipated these challenges and we are
far ahead of the mischief makers. Our security source codes are not only robust
but continuously enhanced,” Yakubu said.
The commission boss also assured Nigerians that the electoral
processes have gone beyond the capacity of its officials to manipulate.
Yakubu said it is ludicrous to claim that the Permanent Voter
Cards (PVCs) to be used in the conduct of any election could be cloned and
Smart Card Readers (SCR) pre-loaded.
According to him, "The card readers are only configured
to specific polling units 72 hours or less before an election, set to operate
only on election day from 8 a.m. and is manually shut down for accreditation
after the last person on the queue has voted or automatically by 8 p.m.
"In Ekiti State, where we are deploying the
enhanced Smart Card Readers (SCRs), this process has not even commenced. It is
impossible to pre-load the card readers let alone do so with cloned PVCs."
He regretted that there is still fixation in certain
quarters that INEC officials are involved in perverting the processes and
procedures for partisan considerations.
According to him, INEC is not a political party and
have no candidate in any election.
Speaking on the July 14 Ekiti State governorship
election, Yakubu said the election would hold in 2,195 polling units spread
across 177 wards in 16 local government areas, adding that 35 political parties
have been cleared to contest in the election.
He said INEC has so far successfully implemented 12
out of the 14 activities leading to the election.
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