By Lizzy Ikuru
#TrackNigeria: Prince Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said he was disappointed over late arrival of electoral materials in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers.
He said on Saturday in Ikuru town, that the election materials arrived two hours earlier than that of the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The election materials arrived 11.33a.m. while during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, materials arrived at about 1.30 p.m. and voting started about 4 p.m.
Secondus said that even the card readers were not also identifying voters and decried poor handling and management of elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), especially in the Niger Delta.
Former Deputy Governor, Mr Tele Ikuru, who spoke, said it was unfortunate that INEC had failed in terms of delivering fair voting process.
“It is unfortunate, I looked forward to that day INEC records some improvement especially in the Riverine areas,” he said.
On voters’ response, the former deputy governor said he was satisfied with the turnout in spite threats issued few days to the election by some desperate politicians.
”I want to commend Rivers people in spite of all these negativities; they came out en masse to make their choices.
”Irrespective of the high level militarisation of the state to instill fear in the people, I must say that I’m quite impressed that voters still came out against all odds,” he said.
An INEC polling official, who pleaded anonymity confirmed the non- response of card readers.
She said that manual voting process was adopted so as not to disenfranchise the people of the area.
She attributed non-response of card readers to poor network reception in the area, but said that the voting exercise so far was peaceful. (NAN)
