MANY registered voters could not locate their polling units at the Gwagwalada and Kwali Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, today, Saturday, February 25, as Nigerians elect a new president and National Assembly members.
The ICIR reporter who monitored voting in the two area councils saw many prospective voters in the two area councils running from one polling unit to the other to find their names.
One of them, Oluwatobi Imodu, said, “I’m here to vote. But unfortunately, I’ve not seen my name on the voters’ register. Originally, my polling unit was at the health care centre. A few days before the election, I got a text from INEC that I’d been reassigned to a less congested polling unit. Getting here, I’ve checked everywhere, and I can’t find my name up till now.
“I don’t even know whether or not I will be able to vote. The whole system is not just well organized at all.”
Similarly, Kafayat Hameed ran to The ICIR reporter, pleading for help. She had thought he was an INEC official.
Mrs Hameed had moved to three polling units to check for her name.
According to her, she had always voted at the polling unit where the reporter met her. But getting to the EC 30 C polling unit in Kwali town, she couldn’t find her name.
The ICIR reports that the Electoral Act requires registered voters to check their names which INEC must have pasted in conspicuous places at the polling centre before the election day.
Meanwhile, The ICIR observed that hundreds of people were at various polling units at the two area councils.
Some of the polling units visited by the reporter in Gwagwalada as of the time of filing this report are Gadonasco polling units 1 – 9, and University Staff Quarters polling units 020, 021, and 022.
Also, in Kwali, The ICIR was at EC 30B, EC 30C, EC 30, among others.
There were a few complaints of BVAS failures, but The ICIR could not independently verify such.
Queues were too long in many polling centres visited by the reporter.
What appears shocking in the voters’ distribution by INEC is that while there were nearly 400 registered voters at EC 30 A and EC 30 B, The ICIR met only about a dozen at EC 30 C. The centres faced each other on a major road within Kwali town.
The hitches notwithstanding, the exercise has generally been peaceful, as security officials, including soldiers, ensured a crisis-free election.
The ICIR published how the FCT residents made panic fuel buying and searched for Naira on Friday.
According to INEC, there are 1,570,307 registered voters in the FCT. Number of PVC collected is 1476,451, giving 94.0 per cent of registered voters. The number of uncollected PVC is 93,868, being 6.0 per cent of registered voters.
A total of 93,469,008 were registered for the poll, out of which 87,209,007 have collected their PVC.
Four leading presidential candidates are Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party’s Peter Obi, and Rabiu Kwankwanso of the New Nigeria’s Peoples Party (NNPP).
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ [email protected]