Despite the hitches encountered in some areas in the authentication process that took place in Ebonyi State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described the exercise as a success.
Addressing journalists, the Ebonyi State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Lawrence Azubuike, who acknowledged that the authentication process was slow, noted that all the challenges encountered in the exercise would be addressed before the general elections.
He explained that all the reports from the field officers would be collated and sent to Abuja for further action before the election.
The REC said, “The exercise is working very well because it is a field test to give us an idea of the efficacy and ability of the card reader, and it includes letting us know any shortcoming.
“So we are identifying these problems now. We would rather learn of them now than learn of them on the election day.
“So to that extent, yes we have conquered.
“The authentication has not been going as smoothly as we would expect, the average authentication has been very poor in most of the units.
“That is a cursory observation – at the end of the day we are going to get detailed reports from the officers who already have what we call incident report form in which they will fill out the specific issues they encountered in the field.
“When we get those then we will put up a proper report, it will give you a better impression of what we have.
“Well, its not a real election, that’s why we are doing the test so that we can devise an option assuming any issue arises; we can also correct those problems before the elections and therefore eliminate them.
“If the problems are peculiar to Ebonyi, of course, they will know what to do about it. If the problems are national, of course, those are policy issues that I cannot speak about now.”
The Director of the National Orientation Agency in Ebonyi State, Dr. Emmanuel Abba, urged INEC to go back to the drawing board to correct the hitches observed.
