Governor of Kogi State, and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Capt Idris Wada, has expressed dissatisfaction with the governorship election held on Saturday.
This is as unconfirmed early reports suggest that All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Abubakar Audu, was leading in what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said was an improvement on previous exercises conducted in the state.
Twenty other candidates, including Phillip Salawu of the Labour Party (LP) and Enesi Ozigi of the Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA), are contesting for the number one seat at the State Government House popularly called Lord Lugard House.
Wada, whose wife’s (Halima) details could not be electronically captured during the accreditation was upset that voting did not start on time in some areas.
“Why are you (INEC officials) signing the ballot papers now? Since after accreditation, I have been waiting, waiting in my house. What is going on? Honestly, it is bad.
“At my level you cannot treat me like this. Sign it! Sign it! I will not accept it! You should have organised yourselves and you are slowing down the process. This is a deliberate attempt,” he said.
Speaking to journalists after casting his vote around 3.45pm, Wada said though there was appreciable turnout of voters, the malfunctioning of card readers and the alleged presence of fake security operatives were worrisome, making the process appear to him as not very free and fair.
His words: “I think this is a deliberate attempt to frustrate all these people that have come to exercise their civic responsibility. I am not happy about this.”
He also added: “State wide, I am hearing report of ballot box snatching in some local government areas such as Okota and Iyanu ward; snatching of ballot boxed and stuffing them with thump-printed ballot papers.
“These are going to be documented and pursued with INEC because after all the voter education, it will really be sad for our country when such things are allowed to happen. It should be a free, fair competition. I do not know why people are doing this. We will pursue it with INEC at the right time.
“There were cases of fake soldiers and policemen that were brought, intimidating people at the point of voting. I am not suspecting involvement of the Federal Government. This is a local arrangement in Kogi State. We will collate the reports from all the local government areas and the national leadership of our party will take a position. I am impressed by the general turnout of voters.”
Deputy Director of Publicity, INEC, Nick Dazang, however said that though there were few challenges with regard to card readers’ performance, security, accreditation and voting processes were successful.
He said that there were some minor challenges of the card readers malfunctioning but disclosed that mechanism were immediately deployed to correct them.
“There was also an incident in Dekina where a ballot box was snatched even when voting had not started,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
“There was also one ward, 27, at Anyigba, where ballot and result sheets were torn, otherwise, I think the election went well,” he said.
Dazang said that the incidence of violence that was anticipated during the polls was not much when compared with the cases in previous elections in the state.
“In the time past we had situations where our staff were abducted, people were killed.
“There is no incident of violence at that level; we have not heard about anybody’s death or abduction.
“There is an improvement compared to previous elections in the state which is considered to be volatile,” he said.
Dazang added that efficiency of the card reader was above average on Saturday as the use of incident form was negligible.
“There was one particular area in Dekina where our officials were not proficient in the use of card reader and we are investigating what happened.
“Otherwise, I think generally, the election went on well; we have technical teams in all the 239 wards and in all the wards, we have ICT staff moved in to troubleshoot any challenges.”
He said that Wada’s claim that the card reads were not working and that there were inadequate incidence forms at polling units did not correspond with real situation.
“I don’t think what he said tallies with what we have seen and what we have monitored.
“The card reader was much successful; the incidences where we have that failure were very few,” he said.
The deputy director added that in all the cases where there was card reader failure, there were sufficient incident forms.
In the area were ballot box was snatched before the commencement of the election, Dazang said the snatcher wasted his time as it would not affect the election.
“In any case, even if there were ballot papers and he snatched them, the ballot papers cannot be counted when returned.”
He expressed satisfaction over the election process and said: “our mission is to always improve on what we have done before and there was improvement in terms of elections held in Kogi state over time.
“The state is noted for volatility and violence but that violence did not take place. Of course, there were few challenges but not the kind of violence we anticipated.”
He added that the improvement was a mark of rigorous voter education carried out by INEC and other stakeholders as well as the appreciation of the efforts by voters.
“I think that people have seen the need to do the right thing,” he said.
