INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega has admitted that there were challenges in the deployment of card readers used to verify voters during Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections, but said the challenges were not significant enough to affect the overall success of the elections.

In an interview with Channels Television, Saturday night, he said: “From our general assessment, out of the 150,000 card readers which we have deployed, only about 450 were affected.

“But because we just wanted to ensure that Nigerians who have been patient in this process have an opportunity to exercise their rights and because the numbers are relatively insignificant, that’s why we thought it was necessary to do an addendum to the guidelines and allow those people to be able to vote once they can be physically authenticated and verified.

“Thank God it went well. The only challenge is that it meant the voting has gone on in some places into late evening and early night,” he said.

He expressed confidence in assurances given by security agencies that all arrangements had been made to secure all polling units and ensure the successful completion of voting which continues into Sunday in parts of the country, as well as a successful collation of the results.