By Shola Oshunkeye
Determined to exercise their franchise, and refusing to be frustrated by initial hiccups, residents in parts of Bauchi employed flashlight and cell phone light to vote in the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Officials also used the same means to conduct the process. Voters in certain polling units in Abuja also continued voting under light.
Also, like he assured in his first press briefing, the situation in Abia State had been normalized while voting went underway in parts of Lagos where the process was initially disrupted.
But the election was postponed in some local government areas in Edo State and Bayelsa State. In Edo, particularly Esan North and Esan South, where a political party complained that its logo was missing on the ballot, the INEC boss, in his second press briefing, disclosed that after consultation with stakeholders, it was agreed that the process be suspended, and the vote shifted to March 11, 2023. It would now hold alongside governorship and state assembly elections.
Earlier on Friday, INEC had suspended the senatorial election in Enugu East Senatorial District over the killing of the Labour Party’s (LP) senatorial candidate for the district, Chief Oyibo Chukwu. It will now hold on March 11, 2023.
“In Edo State,” Prof. Yakubu said, “we had a situation that we handled yesterday (Friday), one of the parties whose acronym is on the score sheet but the logo is not on the ballot paper in a federal constituency.
“After meeting with the stakeholders, a decision was taken since the materials are intact. So, we have suspended the election for Esan North, Esan South and Igueben.
“The ballot papers will be reprinted and elections will now hold with the constituency elections in the next two weeks.”
The electoral umpire also suspended the election in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, over electoral violence and absence of voting materials.
Yakubu continued: “We have a situation in Bayelsa, particularly in the capital, Yenagoa, where in four wards – Wards 4, 6, 8 and 14, involving 140 polling units, the process was disrupted. He said though the situation had been stabilized enough for the conduct of the election, the NYSC ad-hoc staff of the Commission were apprehensive about going back; and “we agreed to shift the election to tomorrow (Sunday).”
Prof. Yakubu assured Nigerians that no eligible voter shall be disenfranchised in the elections.
On the emerging trend of BVAS snatching, the INEC boss said his Commission was undeterred but had actually made solid allowance for contingencies.
“Yes, people are targeting BVAS,” he continued, “but in our preparation for the elections, we made contingency arrangements. We are not joking with this situation because it is critical to the conduct of governorship and House of Assembly elections coming up in two weeks.”