By Rosemary Ogbonnaya
Bearing Area Council election process was delayed by the failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BIVAS, late arrival of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and low turnout of voters in many polling unit.
Speaking on the failure of BIVAS,
the presiding officer in polling unit 063, Christmas street,Usuma, Kubwa in Bwari Council, Luka Osukuvo said they initially had challenge with the BIVAS, saying that during the accreditation process, it was giving an error message” image fail to authenticate.
” As a result of this, we immediately went back to the rack centre and had the machines upgraded and it started accrediting voters,” said Osukuvo.
Also, an incumbent Chairman of the Bwari Area Council, John Gabaya, berated the failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, which characterized the polls across the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
The Chairman speaking to newsmen shortly after he voted in his community, Tokulu, wondered why it did not take him up to “five minutes” for him to get accredited and vote, but the BIVAS disappointed many of his supporters.
Gabaya who is running under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had in 2019 polled 31,114 votes, to defeat his closest rival, Musa Dikko of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who scored 24,137 votes.
Concerning the low turnout of the voters, a Kubwa resident, Mrs Amah Grace said many people in her neighborhood did not vote due to insecurity and fear of the unknown.
” Though we are supposed to go elect our leadership but the truth is that, in Nigeria, votes don’t account any more. The most annoying part is that our political leaders have failed us over the years, th safety of the voters are not guaranteed, many people have died in election violence as a result of inadequate security personnel in the polling units,” she said.
The election process took place across 1000 polling units in the six area councils that make up the nation’s capital, with 478 candidates vying for six chairmanship positions and 62 councillorship positions.
Abaji, Kwali, Bwari, Kuje, Gwagwalada and Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, make up the six area councils.
