#NigeriaDecides: Lagos PDP governorship candidate, Jimi Agbaje laments failed card readers at polling booths

Jimi Agbaje, the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State has expressed his dissatisfaction with the malfunctioning of card readers during voting at his polling unit in Apapa on Saturday.

He spoke with newsmen after he and his wife, Biola, voted at Polling Unit 004, Ward A, Liverpool, Apapa at about 11.20a.m after the card reader rejected Agbaje’s fingerprints, that of his wife and those of three other voters. They, however, eventually voted after their names and photographs were verified manually on the voter register.

The PDP candidate said cases of malfunction of card readers were not good for the credibility of elections. He pointed out that manual verification of voters was susceptible to electoral fraud and unscrupulous elements could capitalise on it to compromise results.

“Coming to my polling unit, I am concerned that the card readers are not working; the five, six of us, that came to vote before and after me, the card reader wasn’t working. And that opens room to all kinds of insinuations, all kinds of mischief and for me, when you get a situation where you have to bypass the card reader, that means we haven’t gotten it right.

It means it is now open to all kinds of human manipulation because if a card reader doesn’t work, one can collude with one or two officials there, and with the wrong information, I will bypass the system. That is the issue, because there is no room in that place for the agents to confirm that the person whose card did not work for the card reader is the owner of that card. So, games can be played,” he said.