Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday subjected himself for the testing of the Direct Data Capturing Machine (DDCM) of the indigenous Nigerian Communication Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) at the National Headquarters of the Agency in Abuja .


Jega, whose biometric data was captured by the DDCM of NIGCOMSAT, withheld comments on his observations on the competence of the machine for the voters’ register.


The Director-General of the NIGCOMSAT, Engr. Ahmed Rufai, had sometime visited the INEC chairman where he introduced the machines as capable of handling the INEC voters’ register.
It was to confirm this that the INEC chairman and members of the commission took a working visit to the headquarters of the agency.


However, Jega had at the Power Point presentation of the machines, stated that the Commission will consider partnering with NIGCOMSAT as one of the reliable agencies trying to partner with INEC to midwife credible, free and fair elections in 2011.


Jega said the Commission would partner all stakeholders, government agencies including the NIGCOMSAT to enable the nation have a credible election in 2011.


According to him, “We in the INEC realised that for us to achieve the goal of free, fair and credible elections in this country, we need to partner with all stakeholders and all government agencies that have something credible to offer because that is the best way to guarantee access and to ensure the attainment of a defined goal and certainly, we consider you as a very credible partner and we look forward to exploring avenues of establishing and strengthening this partnership.


“Many Nigerians like us in the INEC do not know the enormity of the good work that you have done for this country. Your presentation was very clear about your establishment over a very short period of time and just by looking at what you have achieved over this period, it is very, very clear what vast potential exists in terms of how you can help develop our country’s potential not just in information technology, but other several ranges of technologies related areas.