News • Created October 5, 2024 17:13

Benue LG election: Voters stranded over lack of electoral materials

Voters were on Saturday stranded in polling units hours after commencement of the Local Council elections in Benue State. This is as a result of the lack of election materials in many places. Our correspondent reports that the elections was scheduled to commence at 8am but as at 1:21pm, most of the polling units around […]

Voters were on Saturday stranded in polling units hours after commencement of the Local Council elections in Benue State.

This is as a result of the lack of election materials in many places.

Our correspondent reports that the elections was scheduled to commence at 8am but as at 1:21pm, most of the polling units around Makurdi metropolis were either deserted or left with few voters who did not know what next to do.

At the Ankpa Quarters, Otukpo road, Northbank, High level, Nyon community and Nyiman layouts among others, there were no single polling unit where citizens were seen exercising their franchise.

Some voters who spoke to journalists at the NULGE, expressed bitterness over their inability to perform civic duty.

Aondofa James, a voter who had waited endlessly at the polling unit for the arrival of election material, said the experience was sad for him.

“I came here since 7am; saw policemen and presiding officer, however no material to commence the exercise. I’m sad because I have been disenfranchised. I came to vote and didn’t see anybody. I went back to the house and have come again, yet nothing is happening here,” he said.

Another voter, Alfred Patrick, said, “We have come here since 7am waiting for electoral materials for the voting to commence but they were nowhere in sight. We saw security men on ground, electoral officials, but no material.”

The presiding officer of the polling unit at NULGLE, Enokela Akor, said he was still waiting for the arrival of the materials as at 1pm, adding that many voters left unattended to.

However elections were ongoing at ward collation centres such as ‘Suswam Thank You’ LGEA Walomayo, Tilly Gyado Collage, Agan LGEA Primary School all in Makurdi LGA and LGEA Primary School, Daudu in Guma LGA of the state.

Some voters at these centres claimed that they were asked to come to the collation centre to vote.

One of them, Tondo Agber, said he still did not understand why they were brought from their various polling units to the collation centre to exercise their rights.

Meanwhile, the caretaker chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Benjamin Omale, commended the exercise, saying he had visited at least seven polling units and observed that the exercise was going on peacefully.

State Chairman of Peoples’ Democratic Party, Chief Ezekiel Adaji, expressed worry that he had been sitting at his Idekpa polling unit in Ohimini LGA and waiting endlessly for materials that were not in sight as at 2pm.

Adaji said reports he got from other axis in his Ohimini LGA also suggested that voting was not going on anywhere in the area.

Reports however from some LGAs such as Otukpo, Ado and Ushongo suggested that the elections began around 10am while others like Kwande complained about irregularities surrounding the distribution of electoral materials.

The Chairman of Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC), Barr. Richard Tombowua, during an interview with journalists at the collation centre in Daudu, dismissed claims that the exercise was centralised in only collation centres.

“The materials have been distributed to polling units from collation centres,” Tombowua posited.

Our correspondent reports that the eight political parties participating in the exercise include; All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Alliance Congress (AAC), Labour Party (LP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

See pictures from some polling units below: