INEC Retrieves 18 Missing Card Readers In Bayelsa State
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Bayelsa State ,has disclosed that 18 out of its 63 missing card readers that disappeared during the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections in the state had been recovered.
Recall that the commission’s office in Yenagoa had decried on Tuesday that 63 card readers were missing in Bayelsa and appealed to persons in possession of the card readers to return them before Saturday’s governorship and state Houses Of Assembly elections.
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But during a phone-in programme on Radio Bayelsa tagged, ‘Rise and Shine’,INEC’s administrative secretary in the state, Samson Lebari, said on Wednesday this while responding to questions on election-related issues
INEC official told reporters the card readers were missing in Brass, Sagbama, Southern-Ijaw, Nembe and Yenagoa Council areas of the state,insisted that there will no voting in areas where the materials are missing.
According to him, one smart card reader disappeared in Brass ward 6, unit 19; 24 in Nembe, ward 1, 4, 12 and 13 and 24 in Southern-Ijaw, ward 1, 2, 3, 12, 15.
Lebari said, “If those remaining card readers are not brought, there will be no voting in those areas where those card readers were taken. Because there is no where we can manufacture readers from now.
“There is no way we can purchase card readers from now.
“Those card readers were for Bayelsans and it will be for Bayelsa.
“So, whoever took it should bring it back. Let me also inform Nigerians and Bayelsans that we have gotten 18 back.
“And the amnesty the Resident Electoral Commissioner gave, ends today. If the card readers do not come, anybody, any unit, any ward where those card readers were taken away or destroyed, they will not be voting and that is the official position of INEC.
“The people who stole those card readers are from those communities.
They are not from the air. They are not imported from Ghana or Fernando Pou. They are Nigerians from those communities.
“So,the communities know them. There must be dare consequences for criminality and brigandage because if don’t do it, we will collectively shut out for it.
Therefore, no card reader, no voting.”
But Lebari threatened that there would be no voting in the areas the card readers were stolen if they were not returned.
He said the INEC would not be able to fresh card readers to replace the stolen ones for balloting on Saturday, stressing that the communities where the card-reader theft took place should know the perpetrators.
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