INEC alerts on sale of cloned PVCs online

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reacted to reports of attempts by some mischievous elements to clone Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and sell them online.

The electoral commission in a statement by its Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, on Sunday, said it had envisaged that something of such will happen and had taken measures against it.

It therfore called on the public not to worry about the development, assuring that it was almost impossible for PVCs to be cloned.

“INEC has received reports of attempts to clone Permanent Voter Cards 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 statement read in part.

On the pictures online showing blank cards similar to PVCs, the commission said that the advertisement showed photographs of blank cards “which have not been personalised and which do not contain any details”.

INEC however noted that notwithstanding the measures it has put against illegal cloning of PVCs that “it takes these reports seriously and will 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 the necessary action to take down the advertisement forthwith.”

The commission further promised to upgrade its software to ensure that only PVCs issued by INEC were recognised.

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“In addition to the existing features, the commission is already working to further secure the PVCs and the smart card readers and will continue to protect them from unauthorised and malicious access.

“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,” it said.

On the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State, and the Osun State election which follows after, INEC assured of conducting free and fair polls.

 

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