Fed Govt approves purchase of 17,000 voter card readers for 2015 elections

To check multiple voting, the Federal
Government yesterday approved the
procurement of 17,000 voter card readers
at N459million for the 2015 general
elections and subsequent ones.
Information Minister Labaran Maku told
State House correspondents at the end of
the Federal Executive Council (FEC)
meeting presided over by President
Goodluck Jonathan.
Maku, who attended the briefing with the
Minister of Youth Development,
Abdukadir Inuwa, said the Council gave
the approval based on the proposal
submitted by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to FEC.
He said two additional batches would be
purchased to cover the country, adding
that the first batch–17,000 smartcard
readers would be acquired in the next six
months.
He said: "In its desire to ensure free, fair
and credible elections, the INEC is to
procure, customise and configure 17,000
smart card readers that will be deployed
during elections for voters
authentication."
"The Smart Card Readers will be used to
verify the rightful owner of the voter card
presented for identification during
elections."
"In order to show the commitment of our
administration to free, fair, and credible
elections, Council approved the
procurement of 17,000 smart card
readers in favour of Zinox Technologies
Ltd at the rate of N27,000 in the sum of
N459 million with a completion period of
six months,"Maku said.
Giving highlights of his Ministry's last year
performance as presented to FEC, Youths
Minister Abdulkadir Inuwa said his
ministry executed a lot of programmes
last year and particularly trained 700
youths within the period.
Stressing that the Ministry focused on
creating opportunities for self-
employment for youths last year, he said
that there were specific moves to
encourage the youths embrace
agriculture.
"We also used the NYSC Scheme to
conduct training for the youths on
agriculture. Grants, in a number of cases,
were given to the youths who have gone
far in operating their businesses. Also last
year, we introduced the value re-
orientation programme to make the
youths rediscover themselves and
continue to think and act positively,"
Inuwa said.
Source : the nation