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From Ajiri Daniels, Abuja
There was utter chaos at the Lugbe Primary polling unit in Abuja following what voters and residents in the area described as gross election anomalies.
The Sun had earlier reported election hitches in some polling units across the Lugbe axis, bothering on late arrival of INEC officials and election materials.
The sad incidence rather took a nasty turn when prospective voters in the Lugbe Primary polling unit were forced to leave hastily without casting their ballot for fear of an impending violence.
A resident of the area who spoke on condition of anonymity noted that the accreditation process got underway much later than expected as a result of the late arrival of INEC personnel and election supplies. He also sited issues of a compromised voters’ register as many voters could not be accredited because their names were missing on the list of registered voters.
“When we got there in the morning, there were no INEC officials, after about two hours, some people came and pasted an entirely different list and told people whose names were not on the list that they were at the wrong center. Majority of the people who were billed to vote at that center got stranded and left. After about two hours, they removed the list and drove off. After this, another set of officials came and pasted a fresh list which was also incomplete. They told us that names from letter ‘N’ were not inclusive in the new list and redirected those ones to vote elsewhere in the Chief’s palace.
“This is my fourth time of voting at this polling unit and I have not seen something like this before. Usually they’d paste the names, when you see your name you note your number and then go for accreditation and voting; but in this case, they were telling people that ballot papers and BVAS were not available, and in the end we found out that some supposed corps members were stationed inside one of the classrooms in the school where they were thumbprinting on ballot papers. They were dressed in NYSC uniforms but we suspect they were not corpers. This got everyone angry and the whole place got rowdy and I had to leave without voting. Shockingly, they were massive numbers of security personnel at this polling unit while all this was going on,” he said.
Another witness, Mrs. Blessing Effiong, who corroborated the incidence in a separate interview with our reporter, said the voters were shocked to find that those who appeared to be corps members deployed to the polling unit were thumbprinting on ballot papers.
“We were very furious to find those corpers thumbprinting on ballot papers after disenfranchising us. They were beaten mercilessly, and their only saving grace was the security men who shielded them. I ran away without voting for fear of a mob action,” Effiong said.
Although our reporters are yet to receive confirmation of this incidence from the electoral officials at the time of filing this report, normalcy has subsequently been restored to the area.
The voters therefore demanded that INEC look into the occurrence and hold a fresh election in the polling unit.
