…No soldier at polling units
…Nigerians voting for their future – EU, Commonwealth
Marcus Fatunmole (Abuja)
There was large turnout of voters in Abuja as the Presidential and National Assembly election took place,today, Saturday, 23, February.
Our correspondent who monitored the poll across the city observed that the exercise was very peaceful in all the polling booths visited. However, elections did not begin at 8:am as directed by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Some of the voters who spoke with our correspondent said they couldn’t find their names on the voters list pasted around the polling units. Checks by this newspaper however revealed that such persons had not checked their names before the election day. Detached lists were seen with anxious prospective voters who struggled to see if their names were captured.
Meanwhile, against what many had expected, there were no soldiers to help other security formations ensure smooth conduct of the election in all the units visited by Kaftan Post in Abuja.
President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the military and the Police to be strict and live up to their responsibility should anyone try to snatch ballot box during the polls. It was therefore believed that polling booths would have soldiers manning them to prevent ballot box theft.
This newspaper also found out during the election that aged persons such as septuagenarian and above were scarce among the voters at the city centre.
There were minimal complaints on card readers by the electorate.
The city was quiet while voting was on, but food vendors and related business persons made brisk fortunes around the polling units. Police officers took over security on deserted roads and polling units in the nation’s capital. They caught and whisked away suspected violators of electoral laws.
Kaftan Post saw buses and other vehicles conveying ballot materials and officials of INEC to voting centres as early as 7:30 at LEA Primary School, Nuwalege, a village behind Air Force Base, along the Airport Road.
Voting commenced at Aso Drive polling unit at 9:15am, with large turnout of voters. Similarly, the polling unit visited by our correspondent with the largest voters was Kushingoro LEA, along the Airport Road. The unit had hundreds of eligible voters, queuing. Among them were residents of the Disabled Colony, many of whom were assisted to the centres by their relations.
Secretary of the Colony, Suleiman Hammed, said the community had written the Federal Capital Territory Administration and INEC to assist it with a polling unit because of the situation of its people. “There are over 500 registered voters at the colony,” he said.
Chief of European Union Observers Monitoring and Commonwealth Group, Maria Arena, told reporters at the PU 018; at Area 10/ Post Office, that his mission would make its report on the election ready on Monday.
She appealed to all voters and other Nigerians to shun violence during and after the polls. She said the future of the nation “lies in the hands of the citizens, and that they should vote for the future.”
She said her team was collating information from all polling units across the nation. Her words: ” She said: “What is important is not where I am visiting. We have 90 observers all over the country and so, we are collecting information coming in from all over the country coming from our observers. I have done just one pulling unit. But we are collating information coming all over the country.
“I must say that we are not here to give an impression. European Observation Mission, we are working on a methodology for long term observation mission. So, we are here since January and we are observing all the process. I am not here to give my own impression and personal impression. What we can say is that we are collating information coming from all over. We have seen that a lot of polling units were opened later than 8 O’clock in the morning.
“We will have a preliminary report on the 25th of February. So we will have all the information. Now, we are collecting information and we don’t want to give our impression now. What is important is that we have this election today. It important for the Nigerian people. We have seen a lot of Nigerian people being happy to be there and to have an opportunity to vote for their country. So, this is really important and we have to give this message to the Nigerian people to go an vote for the future of their country.”
Other polling units visited by our correspondent include Galadimawa (013); Wuse Government Secondary School; Area 2 polling units 1 – 4; Jabi primary school.
