From Romanus Ugwu, Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Aidoghie Paulinus, Fred Itua Ndubuisi Orji, Fred Ezeh, Okwe Obi, Molly Kilete and Adanna Nnamani (Abuja)
The malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), marred the local council election held in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) held yesterday even as voter apathy and late arrival contributed in no small measure in
At Chibiri EC 30 A, 001, one of the adhoc staff told Sunday Sun that one BVAS was grossly insufficient to cater for the over 2000 registered voters in the polling unit.
“We arrived here very early, started by 8.40am but as you can see that as at 11.30am, we have only attended to less than 20 voters. You can see the electorate under the sun but we are facing helpless situation with the rate the BVAS is going. It is rejecting many of the voters and we could do nothing to manage the situation than to tell the rejected voters to wait by the side to try them again later. One BVAS machine is certainly not enough for the over 2000 registered voters here,” the adhoc staff complained.
It was the same malfunctioning and or insufficient BVAS that was noticeable in almost all the voting centres around Kuje Area Council. A voter at Government Technical School expressed disappointment that BVAS could not authenticate him after waiting for more than two hours.
“I came here before 8.00am, waited on the long queue for over two hours only for me to get there and the machine could not authenticate me to vote. They told me to wait but why should I wait. INEC should be up to its responsibility.
“Why should INEC not perfect this technology before using it to suffer the voters. What could be more torturous than the machine authenticating one out of five voters? I am totally disappointed with INEC over this new technology,” he fumed, storming out of the voting centre.
Meanwhile, the election was characterised by voter apathy in many areas as several polling centres had only three or four voters, forcing the adhoc staff to wait all day waiting for the electorate. At the Government Secondary School, EC 30 B, the presiding officer said that the school authority denied them access into the school premises, claiming that they were unaware of the newly created polling centre.
“We had to wait patiently for hours to enable us get clearance from the school principal because according to them, the school is a boarding school. When they finally did, they told us that they could only allow us stay in front of the school not inside. We didn’t have a choice because we had very few voters. Only two have voted and we will just wait till 2.30pm to leave the place,” he said.
Incidentally
The local council election witnessed a pleasant development in the area when some voters expressed disappointment over the failure of the candidates and their agents to induce them financially at various polling centres to cast vote for them.
Complaining in one of the polling stations in Kayada Primary School, EC 30 A, at Kuje Area Council, one the voters told Sunday Sun reporter that they had deliberately delayed casting their votes to know whether the agents of the candidates of the political parties could induce them. She further lamented that the agents handling the process absconded with the fund on the eve of the election.
“I have been looking around to know if any one can approach me, I have also deliberately delayed going to vote to know the highest bidder, but I have not seen anyone. I even made inquiries but they told me that the agent to sort us out in this voting area ran away with the money given to him.
“I am disappointed because I planned to use the money to buy something no matter how small. As it is, I may not vote if nobody approached me. I will simply return to my house in disappointment,” she complained.
However, a short distance from the Kayada voting centre, Science Primary School I in the same Kuje Area Council, it was brisk business as the electorate harvested from the agents of the candidates of the political parties, raking in amounts raging from N1000 to N5000.
“Market is going on here. They have approached me severally but I refused to get involved because the outcome and experience may be ugly and unpalatable. The first person had offered me N2000 but when I turned it down, he increased it, thinking that I rejected because it was small. The buying caught across the political parties and the electorate are more or less going for the highest bidder,” a journalist waiting to vote told our correspondent.
There was poor turn out of voters in polling units newly created in Jikwoyi, Kurudu, Kpeyegi and Karu areas, in preparation for the 2023 general election.
Newly registered voters were assigned to the new polling units, which resulted in them having few registered voters.
One of the polling units, PU018, located at the Ungwan Pashe/Central Primary School 1, Karu, Abuja, had only one registered voter, and at about 12pm, the only female registered voter was not present to cast her vote.
An official said: “We don’t have her number, we would have called to inform her about the development, and add that we were here because of her, that she was the only registered voter in our polling unit 018. I can assure you that more people would be here to vote in the forthcoming election.”
Similarly, at polling unit 073 located around Custom quarters, Karu, Abuja, National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) members and other officials were practically idle as at 11:00 am waiting for voters to come participate in the process of electing new Area Council officials.
However, there was impressive turn out of voters at polling unit 011 by Custom quarters, Karu, and several other polling units at Jikwoyi Primary School,and few others at Karu.
It was gathered that the polling units with impressive turn out of voters wer existing polling units with high number of registered voter therein.
Meanwhile, one of the polling officers confirmed that the electronic device, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS), was better than the card reader device used in previous elections, thus, commending INEC for the initiative and for creating new polling units, which, he said, would be useful in the next election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, received hard knocks over delay in kick starting accreditation and voting in the Lugbe axis of Abuja.
At 9:51am when Sunday Sun visited Lugbe Primary School, Lugbe, Abuja, voting was yet to commence.
The situation was not different in Across, Lugbe Market, Government Secondary School, Lugbe, Tudun Wada, King of Kings and other baby units such as beside Wamzi Hotel, beside UC Mango Tree, and Indomitable beside the Catholic and ECWA Churches.
Speaking with Sunday Sun, a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) agent in Kabusa Ward 009, Lugbe, Sumaila Sule, said with the development, voters at the ward had lost hope in INEC.
“We don’t have hope in INEC because other places are voting and this is 10 o’clock. Up till now, we have not seen any material, nothing, nothing and there is not even a sign that the election is going to take place here.
“So, what is the hope of Nigeria? What is the hope of the common man? INEC should be neutral in this election. In this election, we need free and fair election. We don’t need anything. They should give us free and fair election.
“They should bring materials for us. People who are regretting to vote, they should vote and vote the candidate of their choice,” Sule said.
Earlier, Sule told Sunday Sun that they were not happy with the situation on ground, saying that the situation was absurd.
“This is the first time we are experiencing this kind of thing. They gave us 8 o’clock and we have been here since 7:30am. Up till now, no material, nothing, nothing and there is even no sign that we are doing election.
“And this is almost 10am and we don’t know the time they are going to come. This is a mother unit and you can see people coming and going. So, seriously, INEC should wake up. We have confidence in them that they will do better than 2019,” Sule lamented.
Also speaking, a member of the International Organization of Human Rights, Development and Environment, Ekundayo Adebiyi, an election observer, said he arrived at the ward at 7:45am but was yet to see INEC officials.
“Now, they should have started and almost through with accreditation, but we are yet to see any INEC official,” Adebiyi said.
However, the situation was different at the Unit 5, Gosa Primary School, Lugbe, where both accreditation and voting commenced at 8:30am.
An INEC Ad hoc Staff, Mohammed Kabiru, who spoke with Sunday Sun, rated the process at 60 percent, saying that one of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not functioning properly.
Meanwhile, Philip Aduda, the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, arrived his poll unit 004 Polling Unit in Old Chief Palace Ward, Karu of Abuja Municipal Area Council at 1:18pm and by 1:30pm was done voting.
Aduda who came with his wife, Hauwa Philip, while describing the process at his polling unit as seamless, said reports at his disposal indicated that the same was not the case in other area councils.
According to him, there were complaints from across the nation’s capital that Biometric Voters Accreditation System (BVAS), were malfunctioning.
He said in his ward, he was able to vote in about 10 minutes within his arrival at the unit.
An election observer and Board Member of Yiaga Africa, Ezenwa Nwagwu, said in the places he observed there were no issues with BVAS.
On the confusion being created by newly created polling units, said: “Remember we highlighted that in our press conference, that those new polling units will pose some challenges. And it has started showing now. I have been to some polling units and no one showed up. I have spent two hours somewhere and nobody came to vote because people cannot even identify that place as their polling unit.
“Incidentally, like I said, these elections are all learning curves for INEC to perfect, you know, 2023 process. And it is important that’s why we are taking deeper interest in observing the election so that we can collate some of the findings that we have and pass them to INEC to be able to see how they up their game going forward.
There was frustration among electoral officers and voters at Orozo, Karshi Gidan Mangoro areas of the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) following the poor performance of the Biometric Voters Accreditation System(BVAS) deployed to the various polling units.
The voters who turned out in their thousands as early as six o’clock and waited for the electoral officers to arrive were disappointed as the BVAS, started developing problems shortly after accreditation started.
Voting at most of the polling units visited started as early as 8:30, but as at 12:45, in the afternoon, not more fifteen persons had voted in some areas.
The situation led to pandemonium as the voters turned their anger on the electoral officers. At some of the polling units visited, the security personnel deployed to maintain order were overwhelmed by the crowd, who they could not control.
It took the intervention of the polling officers who kept pleading with the voters to be patient to bring the situation under control.
At polling units 005, located in front of the secretariat, the polling officer, David Emmanuel complained about the malfunctioning of the BVAS, which he said performed excellently when they started accreditation. Officer said that even though he had reported the matter to his supervisors, they were yet to rectify the problem as at 12:45 in the afternoon.
According to him, he alongside his colleagues got to the location at exactly 7 o’clock in the morning to set up the unit for voting exercise.
He said special attention was given to the elderly, people with disabilities, pregnant women and women with children to vote before others.
At polling unit 029, beside the Karshi General Hospital, the place was virtually empty with no voters in sight, the polling officer said only five people turned out to cast their vote. They attributed the low turn out to the fact that it was a new unit created not long ago.
However, the story was different at unit 004, near the primary health center where thousands of voters turned out as presiding officers battled to get the BVAS function.
The polling officer, Oko Patrick, attributed the malfunctioning to the heat from the scorching sun. He said that even though they were on ground as early as 7 o’clock, the weather has not been friendly to the BVAS as they find it difficult to accredit voters.
As at one o’clock, he said they had not been able to accredit the number of voters they ought to have accredited if the machines were in good working conditions.
He however expressed the hope that the supervising officers who were on their way at the time we visited the polling units would be able to rectify the situation.
At polling unit 001, located at Orozo primary school, the story was the same as voters who turned out as early as 7 o’clock were yet to cast their vote as at 1:30 in the aftrernoon as a result of the poor performance wof the BVAS.
The presiding officer who attributed the delay to the malfunctioning of the BVAS, said «the BVAS, are not capturing as fast, and there is too much delay and if you try to see what it qring with it, it will just trip off.
He said «we came as early as 7 o›clock and got all the necessary materials before we started but as you can see, the process is very slow. We have over 6,000 accredited voters and i can tell you that we have not been able to accredite much.
There was low turnout of voters in in Kubwa, Bwari Area council as well as late arrival of materials in some of the polling units in the area.
When Sunday Sun visited polling unit 006, in Usuma Ward, at 9.13 am, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were seen setting their table for the commencement of the exercise.
The presiding officer, who refused to disclose her name, told our correspondent that although the election was scheduled to commence at 8.30am, they had some hitches. However, she assured that they were set to commence the exercise.
However, at the Byazhin junction polling unit, Sunday Sun gathered BVAS machines malfunctioned. However, he said they had made a formal complaint to their Registration Area Center (RAC).
Similarly, at the polling unit, located at Liberty Junction, voting was yet to commence at 9.59 am. An INEC official told our correspondent, they have been there since 8.30am, but voters are to turn out.
The official, who said there are a total of 2500 registered voters in the area, none was yet to come for the exercise.
At the polling unit, in Dantata Estate, Chikakore, only one person has voted as at 10.14 am, while at the polling unit, adjacent the Kubwa General Hospital, Hospital, nobody has voted as at 10.25am.