By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will commence the systematic hardware and software upgrade of all the Smart Card Readers nationwide next week.
The Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Mr. Oluwole Uzzi, disclosed this in a statement issued Monday in Abuja, where he also revealed that the commission has received reports of attempts to clone Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and sell them online.
He said the commission takes these reports 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 it and take all necessary action to take down the advertisement forthwith.
Uzzi noted that in addition to the existing features, the commission is already working to further secure the PVCs and the Smart Card Readers and would continue to protect them from unauthorised and malicious access.
He stated: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received reports of attempts to clone Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and sell them online.
“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.
“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. 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.”
