TheCable

Jonah Jang, the governor of Plateau, has restated his opposition to the use of the card reader machines, as the device again failed to capture his finger prints as it did during the presidential election.

Jang was later cleared manually after six card reader trials that yielded no positive result.

The visibly disappointed governor repeated his advice to INEC to halt the use of the machine in order to “minimise the disenfranchisement of voters over no fault of theirs”.

“You can see that the card reader again failed to capture my fingers,” he said.

“My suggestion to INEC is to drop the use of the card reader and return to the old style of voting since these machines are not working well.”

Jang also alleged that some names had been removed from the voter’s register, claiming that people who voted two weeks ago did not find their names on the register.

However, he expressed optimism that his party, the PDP, would “do very well” in the election, and urged the people to turn out en masse to vote.

Jang rejected suggestions that there was voter apathy in the state, pointing out that people were still being accredited in many polling units.

Meanwhile, Malam Nasiru El-Rufai, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship candidate in Kaduna State has applauded INEC for early arrival of election materials and officials to polling units.

El-Rufai gave the commendation in an interview with journalists after he was accredited at Polling Unit 024, Ungwan Sarki, Kaduna.

“I am impressed with the turn out this time around, particularly with election materials. I must commend INEC, there is an improvement over the Presidential election,” he said.

He attributed reports of low turnout of people in some parts of the state to the alleged threat by a political party to use thugs to disrupt the election.

El-Rufai urged all registered voters in the state to troop out to exercise their civic duties.

The APC governorship candidate prayed that the polls would be conducted peacefully and successfully nationwide.