Ogboru, O’Tega demand 100 per cent use of card readers not incident forms

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Great Ogboru, and that of the All Progressives Congress, Emerhor O’Tega, have demanded 100 per cent use of card readers and possibly zero per cent use of incident forms for accreditation during the governorship and state House of Assembly elections on Saturday.

Both contenders for the governorship of Delta State said this at the sidelines of an emergency stakeholders’ meeting convened by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday in Asaba.

Ogboru said, “If we are going to do this election on Saturday, it has to be done 100 per cent with card readers. We have to have a limit to use of incident forms. A situation where we have 100 per cent incident form in one polling unit, 30 per cent in another unit, 20 per cent in another unit, I think that is an irregular election.”

He also said collation at the local government level should be done at police stations, instead of local council offices, adding that result sheets should be shown to all party agents and voters before the commencement of the election at the polling units.

Similarly, O’Tega said it was necessary for INEC to limit the use of incident forms during the accreditation of voters for the forthcoming governorship election.

He said, “I think we should set a maximum limit for the use of the incident forms. If it is 10 per cent or 20 per cent, we should agree on it and if the use of incident form in a polling unit exceeds that percentage, then the situation should be treated as if the card reader is not working.”

O’Tega requested that the collation officer that were used for the presidential election should be changed, saying that they might have been compromised.

On his part, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, told journalists that he had no issue with the card readers, provided that hitches, experienced earlier, had been rectified.

“I was of the belief that the card reader was a problem, but the REC has informed us that they have rectified that and that the card readers will still be used in the April 11 elections. We have no problem with the card readers provided they have done something to address our complaints about the card readers.

“They said they are sending their staff to the states to address the local issues with the card readers. We want to believe them,” he said.