Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega has expressed regret over the challenge faced by the electorate through the use of card readers which malfunctioned at several polling units. He also regretted that President Goodluck Jonathan had to experience difficulty in getting accredited at his polling unit.
“What happened in the case of Mr. President is regrettable and a national embarrassment,” he told NTA’s Cyril Stober, yesterday. “We have apologised for what happened”.
Jega said the president’s card was probably damaged.
“As we know man proposes, and God disposes and we have experienced some challenges,” he added, but thanked God because “in general the elections have been peaceful”.
Jega noted that despite the challenges faced, INEC believes that the card readers have done the best for credible elections.
Reacting to news of postponement, Jega made some clarifications. “There is not a single election we have postponed in any state for lack of result sheets. The only PU were we said they can come back tomorrow and do elections was the PU that at 1pm, the process had not began. For the election that we rescheduled to April 11, it will be done with Governorship elections.”
The INEC boss also spoke on the attack of the commission’s website as the polls went on yesterday morning. He said the hack did not disrupt any of the commission’s plans and the website was restored.
“What I want to stress is that no database on the website is compromised, but only the information on the website,” he added.