From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Electorate in the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Area Council election, have expressed disappointment over the failure of the candidates and their agents to induce them financially at various polling centres to cast vote for them.
Complaining in one of the polling stations in Kayada Primary School, EC 30 A, at Kuje Area Council, one of the electorate told our Correspondent that they had deliberately delayed casting their votes to know whether the agents of the candidates of the political parties could induce them.
She further lamented that the privileged information at their disposal had it that the agents handling the process absconded with the fund on the eve of the election.
“I have been looking around to know if any one can approach me, I have also deliberately delayed going to vote to know the highest bidder, but I have not seen anyone. I even made inquiries but they told me that the agent to sort us out in this voting area ran away with the money given to him.
“I am disappointed because I have planned to use the money to buy something no matter how small. As it is, I may not vote if nobody approached me. I will simply return to my house in disappointment,” she complained.
However, few distance from the Kayada voting centre, Science Primary School I the same Kuje Area Council, it was brisk business as the electorate harvested from the agents of the candidates of the political parties, raking in amounts raging from N1000 to N5000.
“Market is going on here. They have approached me severally but I refused to get involved because the outcome and experience may be ugly and unpalatable. The first person had offered me N2000 but when I turned it down, he increased it, thinking that I rejected because it was small. The buying caught across the political parties and the electorate are more or less going for the highest bidder,” a journalist, waiting to vote told our Correspondent.
Meanwhile the incident of vote buying was not the only challenges that confronted the poll at the Kuje Area Council, as late arrival of materials, delay in commencement of accreditations of voters, voter apathy and malfunctioning Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) characterised the poll.
At Chibiri EC 30 A, 001, one of the adhoc staff told our Correspondent that one BVAS has been grossly insufficient to carter for the over 2000 registered voters in the polling unit.
“We arrived here very early, started by 8.40am but as you can see that as at 11.30am, we have only attended to less than 20 voters. You can see the electorate under the sun but we are facing helpless situation with the rate the BVAS is going. It is rejecting many of the voters and we could do nothing to manage the situation than to tell the rejected voters to wait by the side to try them again later. One BVAS machine is certainly not enough for the over 2000 registered voters here,,” one of the adhoc staff, complained.
It was the same malfunctioning and or insufficient BVAS that was noticeable in almost all the voting centres around Kuje Area Council. An electorate who spoke to our Correspondent at Government Technical School, expressed disappointment that BVAS could not authentic him after waiting for more than two hours.
“I came here before 8.00am, waited on the long queue for over two hours only for me to get there and the machine could authentic me to vote. They told me to wait but why should I wait. INEC should be up to its responsibility.
“Why should INEC not perfect this technology before using it to suffer the voters. What could be more torturous than the machine authenticating one out of five voters? I am totally disappointed with INEC over this new technology,” he fumed, storming out of the voting centre.
Meanwhile, the election was characterised by voter apathy in many areas as many polling centres had only three or four voters, forcing the adhoc staff to wait all day waiting for the electorate.
At Government Secondary School, EC 30 B, the presiding officer told our Correspondent that the school authority denied them access into the scjool premises, claiming that they were unaware of the newly-created polling centre.
“We had to wait patiently for hours to enable get clearance from the school principal because according to them, the school is a boarding school. When they finally did, they told us that they can only allow us stay in front of the school not inside. We didn’t have choice because we had very few voters. Only two have voted and we will just wait till 2.30pm to leave the place,” he said.