Category: Verdict 2015

EXCEPT for few reported cases of card readers’ malfunction, the presidential and National Assembly elections were peaceful and recorded high turnout of voters in most parts of Ogun State.

Officials and ad hoc workers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) came out early and voters’ accreditations started on time.
In most of the polling units visited in Abeokuta South and North, specifically in Odeda, Obafemi Owode, Imeko Afon, Egbado South and Ipokia local government areas, voters waited patiently for accreditations despite slow functioning of the card readers in some places.

In most of the units visited, bags of “pure water” and soap were provided for voters to watch their hands to ease authentication of fingerprints.
Those whose fingerprints could not be authenticated after several trials were given incident forms to fill in place of accreditation.

Although the number of those accredited in most polling units visited were low towards the end of accreditation, voting started early in others.

In Registration Area 15 Ibara II in Abeokuta South, 508 voters were recorded on voter register, only 50 voters were accredited as at about 11.07am when The Nation left the area.

Late arrival of election materials and officials at the two polling units in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, delayed accreditation of voters for Saturday’s elections.

The materials, which arrived 10:15am met a crowd of people who had been waiting before 8:am.

As at 10:30am officials were still trying to arrange the crowd.

The unit had two queues, one for the male and one for females but preference was given to the aged, pregnant and disabled voters.

Some of them who envisaged delay came with food packs, snacks and different types of drinks.

Food vendors had a field day selling their products.

The two presiding officers at the Presidential Villa/ Police Commission polling unit, while confirming the hitches said: “The challenges we are experiencing is from both sides, both INEC and the electorates have their faults. On the part of INEC, materials arrived two hours after the scheduled time and on the part of electorates, most of the electorates were turned down because they had issues with their palms despite the fact that their names appeared on the registered list.”

One of the units, 021 registered 2,183 electorates.

An electorate, Mrs. Elizabeth Daudu, who confirmed the delay said: “I was here before 8:00am and the INEC officials did not arrive until few minutes past 10:00am.”

A Federal Commissioner representing the South East at the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission, Rev. Dr. Zion Solomon, while speaking with journalists at the Presidential Villa, berated INEC for the low performance of the card readers.

He also chided INEC for the late arrival of the INEC staff, wondering how they would really cope in the rural areas.

He said: “When I see things like these, I ask myself how they would be able to meet up with time in places like the Mambila Plateau, which is about 9 hours drive from Jalingo, the capital of  Taraba State.

“With these lapses, they informed us that they were ready as far back as February 14. One also wonders what their performance would have been like if the elections were held on February 14.”

“Again as you can see these have further proved that Mr. President was very right to have shifted the election from that date to today even though, we have seen that INEC has not done what it should have done fully.”

Also, the White House 010 polling unit in Mararaba had similar problem of delay.

The accreditation exercise in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) went on smoothly within main capital city and the satellite towns.

Our correspondent who went round the polling centres observed a fairly large voter turnout.

The smart card readers did not present much difficulty as envisaged in some quarters. Most of the voters got accredited with the card readers within three seconds.

However, the card readers rejected some finger prints, including that of this correspondent at a polling booth in Kubwa. Like a few others with similar problem, affected persons were promptly accredited through the voter registers kept handy for that purpose.

Foreign technical hands were also seen moving round the polling centres, apparently to address hitches that might arise from the smart card readers.