The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)need to replace over 3,000 Smart Card Readers lost during elections, its Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said yesterday.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, also said the commission needs to get more Card Readers.
According to Yakubu, only one of the 164 elections conducted by the commission under its present management has so far been upturned by the court.
He spoke when he visited members of Senate Committee on INEC at the National Assembly.
Yakubu was accompanied by nine National Commissioners and other top officials.
He said the commission had so far conducted 164 elections with another one slated for the weekend in Langtang Local Government in Plateau State.
The INEC boss said that other elections would soon be held in Anambra (senatorial), Delta and Rivers (Etche Local government).
According to him, of the 80 elections nullified by the courts after the 2015 general elections, 76 had already been conducted.
He stated that uninformed critics castigated the commission over inconclusive elections.
He identified inducement by politicians before and during elections as a major challenge facing the commission, noting that the recent revelation by the police panel on the Rivers re-run elections underscored the enormity of the problem.
But he assured the committee that the commission would continue to uphold good practices and deal expeditiously with proven cases of corruption against its workers.
He hailed the Senate for embarking on electoral reform, adding that the commission successfully prosecuted 40 electoral offenders in Kano while “62 cases are currently in court”.
Yakubu added that the commission was addressing the challenges associated with the Smart Card Readers (SCRs) and striving to improve its mechanisms for collating and transmitting election results.
However, he claimed that due to rising costs, the commission would require more resources to carry out its activities.
“Our monthly salary is N1.3 billion, we have 16,000 staff and 820 offices across the country. We have offices in all the state capitals and local government areas.”
The committee chairman, Senator Mohammed Ndume, hailed the commission.
He said of all the general elections conducted since the advent of democracy in 1999, only the 2015 version truly reflected the people’s will. To that extent, he said INEC must strive to improve on it and organise a more credible election in 2019 that all Nigerians will be proud of.
Ndume gave assurances that his committee would cooperate with the commission as it prepares for the 2019 polls.