Ondo poll: Oke, Akeredolu lament malfunctioning card readers

The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in the going Ondo State election, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, and his counterpart in the Alliance for Democracy, Wole Oke, has lamented the malfunctioning of some smart card readers deployed for the exercise.

Oke, after he had voted at his Igbo Ward III Polling Unit 005 said, “I am not easily frustrated, but it is embarrassing as a candidate that the card reader could not easily capture my hand,’’ he said.

Oke noted that the electoral process in the country was not a perfect one yet.

Oke voted at 9.17 a.m.

The AD candidate, however, said he was impressed with the turnout of voters in Ilaje council area.

Akeredolu, who also spoke at his Owo residence after casting his vote, said that INEC ought to have test run the devices before election day.

He said reports had indicated that some of the devices were malfunctioning.

The APC candidate, however, said that his major concern was the commission ensuring free, credible and fair election.

The card reader had also rejected Gov. Olusegun Mimiko’s thumbprint when he wanted to vote at his Ward 7, Unit 20 Polling Unit in Ondo West Local Government Area.

But INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr Segun Agbaje, said the commission has more than 250 spare smart card readers to replace those malfunctioning.

“I have called the Head of Department of ICT to get smart cards for areas with smart card challenges and very soon they will them.

“ Card reader is not a major challenge because it can be addressed within 10 to 20 minutes; we have over 250 smart card readers for exchange in case of malfunction,’’ Agbaje had said.

No fewer than 1,280,580 voters with Permanent Voter Cards were expected to vote in the election out of the 28 contestants.

Although 1,659,186 voters were registered for the election, only 378,606 collected their PVCs.