After a peaceful start to the Kogi State governorship election, problems with card readers have emerged.
Incidents
of outright failure of card readers to low battery and finger print
recognition failure have been reported at different polling units,
causing prospective voters at some polling units have had to wait longer
than they anticipated.
The problems affected the state Governor, Idris Wada, who is also the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The governor and his wife had to be manually accredited after the card reader failed to accredit them.
At Amole
Open space unit, Lokoja, the Presiding Officer, Maryam Adamson,
said thumb printing and finger print failure was rampant with over 50
cases recorded around 10am.
Election
monitoring group, the Situation Room, has reported more than five
instances of problems with card readers via its twitter handle.
Around
12pm, the group, which is a platform of civil society organisations,
tweeted that accreditation had stopped at Karaworo polling unit 003,
Ward C, in Lokoja as the card reader’s battery had run down.
At 11:50am, the group tweeted, “Pu 003, Shara Open space, Bassa LGA. Card reader failure, incidence form almost exhausted.”
It also reported card reader failure at polling unit 003, Ward 3, Ofu LGA, adding that the incidence form was almost exhausted.
There
have also been reports of shortage of materials. One of our
correspondents had reported around 9:30 am that there was a shortage of
ballot boxes at Emewe Ward in Dekina Local Government. The ward, which
is comprised of 23 polling units, received 18 ballot boxes.
He
added that the shortage of incidence forms at some polling units had
led to tension as some voters felt they would end up being
disenfranchised.
There
are 22 contestants in the election, however, the main contenders are
Wada and the All Progressives Congress candidate, Abubakar Audu.
Problems
with the card readers had been widespread during the general elections
earlier this year and it had been expected that more than six months
later, the Independent National Electoral Commission would have found a
solution to the problem.
Accreditation
had started between 8am and 8:30am at most of the polling units visited
by our correspondents. They also noted that voter turnout had been
impressive at most of the units.
Following
his accreditation earlier, the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Mr. Yomi
Awoniyi, said the logistic arrangements made by the Independent National
Electoral Commission and the security measures in place for the
governorship election were satisfactory.
Awoniyi
had been accredited to vote in the election at Ileteju Unit of Ward 4,
Mopa, in Mopamuro Local Government Area of the state.
The
deputy governor, who expressed satisfaction at the large and early
turnout of voters, added that he was optimistic of a convincing win
by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
He
expressed the hope that the initial success achieved in the security
and logistic arrangements made by INEC and the Nigerian Police would be
sustained.
Ahead
of the elections, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had called
for the support of all stakeholders and urged all parties to play by the
rules.
