Early complaints marred the start of voting at Durumi II, Polling Unit 022, during Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory Area Council elections, as several voters arrived to find their names missing from the accreditation list.
Voting at the unit began at around 10:00 a.m., but frustration set in among voters whose names beginning with the letters E, C, H, and I could not be found on the list pasted for accreditation.
NEWSNGR correspondent confirmed the omissions on the ground.
One of the affected voters, Emmanuel Chidi, described the situation as suspicious.
“My name is Emmanuel Chidi, I registered here,” Chidi said, insisting his details should have appeared on the accredited list.
Another voter, Chidi Uchechi Magret, also expressed dissatisfaction with the omission and questioned why the list was not properly displayed.
“It wasn’t pasted there, they said I should go and meet the presiding officers to check from their own list and I said no, why didn’t they paste it. I will not vote unless it’s pasted there,” she said.
Responding to the complaints, Assistant Presiding Officer, Abraham Ayimolu, assured the affected voters that steps were being taken to address it.
“It’s an omission, we are trying to rectify it. It’s not a problem, we will improvise. We will use our own master list to check their names, and once their correct Polling Unit is here, we will find it in our own list. We have also called the head office, we told them about the situation,” Ayimolu said.
Despite the concerns at Durumi II, voter turnout across neighbouring polling units remained strong.
At Durumi I, Polling Unit 021 located at the Chief’s palace, voting started earlier at about 9:12 a.m., and attracted a large number of voters.
Party agents at the unit confirmed that the process was progressing smoothly.
The Social Democratic Party agent, Chime Nkech, and the Zenith Labour Party agent, Nnamdi Patricia, both acknowledged that the voting process was orderly and confirmed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was functioning effectively.
The Village Head of Durumi I, Chief Yohana Isaku, said residents were committed to participating in the exercise despite past delays experienced in previous elections.
“We start early, I was just saying, hope it will no longer be 2:30 p.m. as usual, even if they had decided to start late, we don’t mind staying here till 11 p.m. to ensure that our vote counts. The process is going well and as soon as you get accredited, you vote,” he said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is conducting the election in 2,822 polling units across the six area councils.
The elections involve 1,587,025 voters, representing a 94.4 percent Permanent Voter Card collection rate out of 1,680,315 registered voters.
INEC deployed 11,873 polling unit officials alongside supervisory and technical staff to ensure the effective use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps deployed 4,000 personnel as part of an inter-agency arrangement aimed at ensuring a peaceful, free, fair and credible election.
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