The All Progressives Congress, APC, main opposition party in the ongoing election has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to consider extending the time for the accreditation of voters. This is because of the hitches experienced in the use of the novel card readers at the polling units.
A statement by Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of the party, it said the extension will enable scores of eligible voters who are at the polling units to exercise their civic rights. Mohammed, however, said that Nigerians should not be discouraged by the hitches experienced with the card readers, stating, ”The card reader is a novel tool in our elections and naturally there will be some initial hiccups. We understand that the delays were due to the failure to remove the protective films on the lenses of many card readers, the poor network of some of the sim cards in the card readers and the effect of jamming devices on the card readers.”
But prior to the appeal by the APC, INEC staff had started to extend the time of accreditation and voting, particularly because voters waited patiently for INEC to address the problem.
The party also implored INEC to recognize the letters of identification given to polling agents by their political parties, so the agents can monitor the election. According to the party, they had to resort to the letter form because of the failure of the Commission to accredit the agents whose names were earlier sent to the electoral empire.