IThe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) machines will not be able to read cloned permanent voter cards, Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Electoral INEC), has reiterated.
He revealed this in an interview with Abuja-based Metropole magazine.
Jega said the PVCs are embedded with chips that contain data and fingerprints of each individual registered voter — which means cloned ones would not work.
“DSS did not say INEC reported. DSS are in the business of intelligence gathering and security and evidently through their own sources had something to make them act the way that they did. We did not report it. We didn’t ask them to do it and we didn’t know anything like that was happening.
“All I can say is that I know the investment that we made on the permanent voters’ cards, and it is very difficult if not impossible for anybody to clone it. If people clone the card, how are they going to get it read? You can clone it and make it look like an INEC card visibly but the card has to be read on election day using a card reader.
“You must have the card reader and the configuration and everything to do it, and it’s simply impossible. But that notwithstanding, this does not take away from the security agency for trying to do what they believe is their job.”