Category: Election 2019

Card readers on Saturday malfunctioned in most polling units in Bayelsa State and forced voters to resort in manual authentication of their fingerprints.

At the polling units where Governor Seriake Dickson and his Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson voted in Sagabama and Ogbia Local Government Area, the card readers failed to authenticate their fingerprints.

They were asked by the electoral officers to undertake manual authentication, which involved identifying their names in the voters’ register and thumb printing on them before casting their votes.

It was observed that most people that voted in Ward 11, Unit 1 in Opume, Ogbia Local Government Area where Iworiso-Markson cast his ballot at about 9:30am, experienced the same problem.

At Unit 12, Ward 11 in Opume, card readers refused to work as at 10:30am as the electoral officers said voting could not take place in the unit.

They however said they were waiting for new card readers to enable voters in the unit cast their ballot.

But there was massive turnout of voters in most polling units in Ogbia, Yenagoa and Kolokuma-Opokuma local government areas as people waited patiently to cast their votes.

Speaking after voting in his polling unit, Iworiso-Markson said the exercise in his area was very peaceful and commended the turnout of voters.

“It is orderly and the voters are conducting themselves very well. There is still an issue with the card reader because it was unable to authenticate my fingerprints. That is the general complain that I noticed here.

“If there is anything at all that INEC should address speedily, it is the fact that the card readers can’t authenticate fingerprints of the voters. I had to resort to manual authentication,” he said.

He complained bitterly about violence in Basambiri in Nembe and some parts of Ekeremor, which he said started at the eve of the election.

Also a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Preye Aganaba, commended the exercise in his hometown in Odi, Kolokuma-Opokuma.

“People have been able to exercise their franchise. But in one or two places in Odi, we have card reader problems. But they resorted to manual authentication,” he said.

Read also: Three killed, many injured in Lagos

Aganaba, however, said there were skirmishes in Ward 5, Olubiri, saying a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fomented trouble in the area.

He, however, said security agencies rose to the occasion and arrested the chieftain adding that some thugs tried to disrupt the elections in Sampo.

He expressed optimism that Buhari would win the election nationally but said he would get improved votes in Bayelsa.

“Buhari will do a lot better than he did last time and for me that is a win. I am hoping that this time around the president will give appointments to active party members to enable us influence the grassroots”, he said.

Also speaking, a two-time member of the House of Representatives, Warman Ogoriba, said election went well in Odi, Ward 1, unit 8.

“There was no incidence of violence and everybody conducted themselves peacefully.

“The card readers worked well though slow. I got reports in some units that the card readers were not working but they later started working,” he said.

But scores of indigenes of Opu Nembe and Oluasiri in Nembe Local Government Area besieged the office of the Indepedent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to protest the hijack of materials meant for their areas.

The protesters blamed some leaders of the APC and demanded the release of the electoral materials belonging to seven wards of Bassambiri and Oluasiri.

The insisted that the electoral materials for Nembe Constituency 2 and 3 comprising Opunembe and Oluasiri were hijacked and taken to a hotel in Bassambiri to perpetrate electoral fraud.

The Nembe Local Government Chairman, Mr. Sunny Erewari, said in a statement on that thugs led by APC leaders hijacked the materials and deprived the people their right to vote.

He said that some security agencies colluded with APC thugs to chase away all PDP members from Bassambiri.

He said that the women were protesting because they could not vote in spite of the fact that they all had their permanent voters cards.

There were reports of shooting in Agbere community in Sagabama as suspected political thugs invaded the area and made away with ballot boxes for the 10 units.