By Nabilu Balarabe
The Coalition of INEC Accredited Observer Groups has adjudged the conduct of Feb. 25 Presidential and National Assembly election in Yobe as “generally satisfactory”.
The Team Secretary, Mr Adamu Kowa stated this at a press conference in Damaturu on Tuesday.
He said after careful review of the Feb. 25 elections, the group held that elections were conducted peacefully in all the 178 registration areas across the 17 local government areas of the state.
“Reports from the various local government areas of the state showed that people conducted themselves peacefully at their various polling units, and arrived on time to exercise their franchise.
“Most of the polling units were opened between the hours of 9:00 am and 11:00 am, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines were used to verify and accredit voters.
“Some of machines were very effective as it took less than ten second to accredit a voter. There were separate queues for women and people with special needs in the areas visited.
“The process was accreditation and voting simultaneously. This allowed a voter to cast his vote within short period of time,” Kowa said.
The scribe, however, observed that there were isolated incidents of late arrival of election materials, voters names missing on the register, technical challenges with BVAS, among others.
He, therefore, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review elections conducted at Manawaci 003, Tadangara 008 and Dambulwa 001 polling units of Turmi/Malori wards of Fika Local Government Area.
Kowa alleged that there were incidents of discrepancies between total votes cast and total number of accredited voters in the affected units.
The scribe commended INEC for deploying BVAS in the elections, saying the machine had reduced election malpractice to the barest minimum.(NAN)
