Federal Government To Spend 459 Million Naira On Card Readers To Read Voters Cards During 2015 Elections

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved 459 million Naira contract for the purchase of 17,000 card readers ahead of the 2015 elections.

The contract will pave way for the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to use new Voters cards for the polls which are essentially smart cards.

In its bid to digitalize conduct of the 2015 elections, new permanent Voters cards will be smart cards containing bio metric information.

This the electoral referee believes will essentially check incidences of multiple registration and impersonation some of the most rampant electoral offenses.

The award of the contract comes days after House of Assembly elections in Imo state showed that Nigeria is still vulnerable to electoral fraud and manipulation.

The contract for the card readers is the first of 3 phases.

Government was reluctant to respond to spate of strikes that have hit the country in recent days: the 3 day warning strike by the National Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG and the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

Most of council's deliberations on Wednesday centered around the performance evaluation report of the Ministry of Youth Development.

The Minister, Inuwa AbdulKadir explained that government would not scrap the National Youth Service Corps but was determined to make its operations more robust.

And Mr AbdulKadir said government would no longer deal with people beyond the age of 13 to 35 who had become professional youth leaders, engaging government for benefits meant for the youth.