Jimi Agbaje Expresses Concern Over Malfunctioning Card Readers

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jimi Agbaje, has expressed concern over the malfunctioning of the card readers during voting at his polling unit in Apapa.

NAN reports that the card reader had rejected Agbaje’s fingerprints, that of his wife, Biola, and those of three other voters.

They, however, eventually voted after their names and photographs were verified manually on the voter register.

Speaking with newsmen after casting his vote, Agbaje said cases of malfunction of card readers were not good for the credibility of elections.

The PDP candidate said that the country should have gone beyond cases of failed card readers to achieve seamless voting.

“Coming to my polling unit, I am concerned that the card readers are not working; the five, six of us, that came to vote before and after me, the card reader wasn’t working,” he said.

“And that opens the room to all kinds of insinuations, all kinds of mischief and for me, when you get a situation where you have to bypass the card reader, that means we haven’t gotten it right.

“It means it is now open to all kinds of humanDaymanipulation because if a card reader doesn’t work, one can collude with one or two officials there, and with the wrong information, bypass the system.

“That is the issue because there is no room in that place for the agents to confirm that the person whose card did not work on the card reader is the owner of that card. So, games can be played.”

On his assessment of the process generally in the state, he said the election had been fine, except in one or two places.