People in Power Detains Supplier of Voting Card Readers, Opposition Says
Nigeria’s security service detained the head of the company that supplied biometric card readers and voting cards to the national electoral commission for general elections that start Saturday, the opposition said.
Nigeria’s security service detained the head of the company that supplied biometric card readers and voting cards to the national electoral commission for general elections that start Saturday, the opposition said.
The Department of State Security Services picked up Sani Musa, an executive at ACT Technologies Ltd., in the capital, Abuja, on Tuesday, the opposition All Progressives Congress said late Thursday in a statement. DSSS spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar declined to comment when contacted by phone.
Femi Fani-Kayode, a spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign, accused Musa of being a supporter of the main opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, and said he had expressed hatred for the ruling People’s Democratic Party, Lagos-based ThisDay newspaper reported.
Jonathan’s campaign has criticized the use of the biometric card readers, saying they haven’t been distributed equally to voters across Africa’s most populous nation.
The head of the electoral commission known as INEC, Attahiru Jega, has denied allegations that some areas were given preferential treatment in the distributing of the cards.
All elections since the end of military rule in Nigeria have been marred by ballot stuffing, multiple and underage voting, and falsification of figures, according to local and international monitors. About 800 people died in violence in 2011 after Buhari lost to Jonathan and said the result was rigged.
