Clement Idoko-Makurdi
Accreditation and voting for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday could not commence at 12:04 at Nyiman polling station, O25, located at St. Joseph Secondary School, Makurdi, because of the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Ad hoc staff who was unable to operate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS).
The eligible voters who came massively to cast their votes at the polling were already getting agitated when the INEC Ad hoc staff in charge of the machine continued to fiddle with it until one of the INEC coordinators was brought to save the day.
The INEC coordinator, discovered that the Ad hoc staff handling the machine was not imputing the right password for the machine to open, even though, she noted that they trained on the use of the machine and as refreshed all of them, especially asking them to write down the password early on Saturday before departing to their various places of assignments.
Meanwhile, there was confusion because of polling unit reassignment at Nyiman polling station, Unit 041, as security agencies had hectic time trying to control the massive crowd of eligible voters waiting to cast their votes.
INEC presiding officer in charge of the polling unit, a Youth Corps member, Margaret Esu, told our correspondent that a lot of those waiting had been reassigned to other nearby polling units but have insisted that this is their usual place of voting.
“We have told them that anyone that his or her name does not fall within letters A to I, should check other polling units but they have refused go, that this is where they usually vote,” she said.
Esu noted that the polling station was split into three and that only 750 registered voters were expected to cast their votes at the polling unit.
A woman with a baby, who gave her name as Ngunan, said she came early to the polling unit and queued for long time only to be told that it was not her right place to vote.
While expressing disappointment over the arrangement, she said she would return home and forget about voting, even after explanation was offered to her that she could check and vote in another nearby polling since the reassignment was not meant to disenfranchise anyone but to reduce crowd in a particular place.
