Just in: INEC discovers plans to clone PVCs ahead of elections, reveals its strategies

macfranc007 July 01, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Eromosele Ebhomele

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in the evening of Sunday, July 2, raised an alarm over alleged plans by some Nigerians to clone the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) ahead of elections in the country.

INEC said the plan was to see that the cloned PVCs are sold to online to citizens.

“We wish to assure the public that the commission had anticipated these and proactively taken measures to preserve and further secure our electoral materials.

“Several security features and secret source codes are contained in the smart card readers which enable them to read only PVCs duly issued by the commission.

“The advertisement shows photographs of blank cards which have not been personalised and which do not contain any details,” the commission said in a statement issued by Oluwole Osaze Uzzi, the director of voter education and publicity in INEC.

The commission said it is taking this seriously and would engage the government and security agencies as well as the promoters of the platform in order to get to the root of the issue.

The statement added that INEC is prepared to take all necessary actions to take down the advertisement forthwith.

“In addition to the existing features, the commission is already working to further secure the PVCs and the smart card readers and will continue to protect them from unauthorized and malicious access.

“It is for this reason that, beginning from next week, we are commencing the systematic hardware and software upgrade of all the smart card readers nationwide.

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“It is worthy of note that this enhancement had already been successfully done in Ekiti and Osun, preparatory to the upcoming governorship elections in both states.

“We wish to reassure the public that our systems are robust even as we continue to fortify them ahead of the 2019 general elections,” the statement said.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that the chairman of the Independent National Election (INEC), Professor Mahmoof Yakubu, said the agency was awaiting formal communication on the existing vacancies in the National Assembly (NASS).

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