Posted on: 01:23 Sat, 28 Mar 2015

President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience, have finally been accredited at polling unit 13 in the president’s hometown of Otazi in Otueke, Bayelsa State.

The president’s accreditation was done using the Independent National Electoral Commission’s incident register, after previous attempts using three card readers failed to capture his biometrics.
Speaking with journalists after he was duly accredited, the president urged Nigerians to be patient with INEC as other options have been made available if the card reader fails, like it happened in his case.

He had earlier said no sacrifice is too much for Nigeria and encouraged other voters to be patient with INEC in getting their accreditation done.

“President Jonathan is just one person, so if we have problem with one person, as far as the elections is going on well nationally, I’m not worried. There might be a delay, my interest is that we conduct a credible election”, he said.

The chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, had said that if a card reader fails to capture a voter’s biometrics, the commission’s staff at the polling units will resort to manual accreditation.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Plateau State, Governor Jonah Jang and his wife, Talatu, have not been accredited after the card reader failed to capture their biometrics.
As of the time of publishing this report, they were yet to be accredited.

Speaking to journalists shortly after the card reader device failed to authenticate him, Mr. Jang, who is running for Plateau North Senatorial District election, said “I am disappointed in the process, since the card reader can reject the number one citizen of the state”.