Barely an hour into the accreditation exercise in the Kogi governorship
election, some card reader machines have started malfunctioning.
At about 9:30 am, reports from the state revealed that at Polling Unit
015, Ward A in Lokoja, the electoral officers are having a hard task as
one of the card readers won’t recognize finger prints. The Presiding
Officer had put a call through to the operation room for a replacement.
Voters on queue were restless due to the development, but efforts by
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials calmed frayed
nerves. Accreditation however went on slowly.
At Polling unit 012, ward A, card readers are selecting the fingers they
would identity making the process slow. The problem of finger print
recognition is widespread, and the affected persons had to fill the
incident forms.
According to reports, distribution of kits and electoral materials started
about 7:20 a.m. at INEC headquarters on Marine road. Vehicles carrying
electoral personnel are moving to different local government areas.
However, Situation Room observed yesterday that welfare of security
personnel deployed is not properly taken care of. Two of the police
officers deployed to Dekina LGA, Idris Wada’s LGA, were complaining over
poor welfare.
Although 22 political parties have been recognized by the INEC to
participate in the elections, only four parties have so far shown
considerable desire to be taken seriously for the election. They are the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose candidate is the incumbent
governor, Captain Idris Wada; Abubakar Audu of the All Progressive
Congress (APC), Mr. Philip Omeiza Salawu of Labour Party (LP), and Mr.
Enesie Emmanuel Ozigi of the Progressive Peoples Allienace (PPA).