FCT Residents Lament Late Arrival of INEC Staff, Materials

By Linda Ike

Residents of Kuje Area Council in the
Federal Capital Territory FCT have expressed displeasure over late arrival of INEC Staff and the election materials to the polling units.

The Voters at various polling units, 001,002 and 009 Central Primary School, Kuje Area council ward. on Saturday said that they had left their homes early enough as 5.30am to observe their civic rights.

They complained that there have been difficulties in finding their names at the polling units.

Despite these challenges faced by the Voters, there was a massive turnout in all the polling units as voters said they were willing to exercise patience for INEC to sort all anomalies to enable them cast their votes.

The Federation of Women Muslim in Nigeria Observer, Rukayar Yusuf who spoke to currentnews.com.ng reporter had opined that if INEC officials were early enough to the polling units that the crowd would have been reduced.

The Christan Association of Nigeria Observer, Mr. Asu Matthew also complained the late arrival of INEC officials, though expressed satisfaction that voters have exercised their civic rights despite the fact that voting process began behind schedule.

Similarly, Residents at the polling unit 020, Abuja Municipal Area Council AMAC have complained that there were issues of poor functionality of the BI-MODAL VOTER ACCREDITATION SYSTEM (BVAS) which delayed capturing of voters.

It was observed that persons with disabilities were allowed to cast their votes first and security personnel were fully on ground though not armed.

In Karu Area Council of the FCT, most voters had complained of finding it difficult to locate their voting points hence INEC split the existing polling units into many to make the process easy and faster.

At Angwan Hausawa, ward in Karu Village, where the electioneering process started at about 8:30, Mr. Okoro Rufus commended INEC for the use of BVAS for the exercise, noting that the machine was working well in his unit.

On his part, Mr. Danladi Isaac complained that the BVAS was not capturing the faces of voters thereby
leaving voters stranded.

The 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections recorded large turnout of voters in all the polling units across the FCT as voters attested that the election was more peaceful compared to the 2019 general elections.