Thugs steal ballot papers /Nigeria soldiers disperse voters in Nasarawa

Pandemonium broke out at a polling unit by Sharp Corner in Mararaba, Nasarawa State on Saturday as some hoodlums snatched ballot papers meant for the over 3,000 eligible voters who were waiting to perform their civic duty after accreditation.

Jonathan’s aide escapes lynching in Kano

The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on School Agriculture, Dr. Baraka Sani, on Saturday in Kano escaped death from the hands of suspected political thugs, who prevented her from voting.

Voting continues to night in Jos

Voting was still going on in most of the polling units in Jos, the Plateau State capital as at 8 pm due to last arrival of election materials.

In some instances where the materials arrived as late as 3 pm, the voters and the electoral officers decided to accredit and vote at the same time.

Maku rejects card readers

The governorship candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance in Nasarawa State, Labaran Maku, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to discard the card

Hoodlums attack ballot boxes

Several cases of election violence were recorded in Ebonyi State on Saturday, as hoodlums shot and snatched ballot boxes in some polling booths across state.

At the polling booth in Nwakpu Market Square, Ikwo Local Government Area, an unidentified man emerged from the bush and shot several times into the air.

Gov candidate, stakeholders want March 28 elections cancelled

The Labour Party governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Edward Nkwegu, has called for a cancellation of Saturday’s election in Ebonyi State, saying that many eligible voters were disenfranchised during the exercise.

Nkwegu lamented that the number of those accredited by the card readers were lesser than those not accepted by the machines.

“The most disturbing part is that only five incident forms were provided in the polling booth where I voted, while about 200 persons failed the accreditation by the card reader. So how are the rest of the people going to fill the forms?

“It would be proper if the elections were cancelled in areas where there were very severe cases of disenfranchised voters,” he said.

The Ebonyi LP governorship candidate expressed worry that the election may witness a large number of disenfranchised voters in other parts of the country.

Nkwegu, however, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to go ahead with the card readers but to work “assiduously” to ensure that the challenges were solved before April 11 governorship elections.

Meanwhile, political stakeholders in the state have alleged sabotage by the INEC in the distribution of election materials.

Commissioner of Education in the state, Chief Ndubisi Chibueze-Agbo, said that the INEC officials were supposed to arrive in Ohaukwu Local Government Area (Ebonyi North) zone by Friday evening, but they failed to do so.

“The electoral materials had not arrived my polling unit for instance, as at 10.am (Saturday) and the INEC officials brought a ‘GP tank’ on Friday instead of personnel and materials,” he said.

Chibueze-Agbo said he was suspecting sabotage from INEC. He said, “The main intention was to disenfranchise Ohaukwu people.”

Labour Party senatorial candidate for Ebonyi North zone, Chief Peter Oge-Ali, noted that voting materials brought to the area were mixed.

“Voting and result sheets were taken to areas they were not meant to be, and this is a serious sabotage from INEC,” Oge-Ali said.

The All Progressive Grand Alliance governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Senator Anthony Agbo, said that he was ready to take the matter to court.

Ohuabunwa decries card reader failure

The Peoples Democratic Party senatorial candidate for Abia North district, Chief Mao Ohuabunwa has decried the high rate of card reader failure in his Arochukwu Local Government Area.

Ohuabunwa who spoke with our correspondent after he was accredited said something urgent needed to be done to address “the heavy failure” of card readers

Voters abandon Jonathan, Buhari

After a close monitoring of the elections in three senatorial zones of Ebonyi State on Saturday, our correspondent observed that the voters, especially in Ebonyi North and Ebonyi Central senatorial zones, hardly cast their votes for any of the presidential candidates.

Late arrival of ballot papers mars poll

Late arrival of materials and slow accreditation marred voting in parts of Abia State on Saturday.

While voting went on smoothly in some parts of the state, in other places, voters were subjected to long waiting after accreditation as ballot papers were not available.

Ngige refuses to vote, says process faulty

Senator Chris Ngige representing Anambra Central Senatorial District refused to vote on Saturday, claiming that the electoral process had been compromised.

Ngige, who is contesting for a re-election in the Senate, said he chose to waive his right to vote in the on-going elections when our correspondent met him at Alor ward 1, in his home town.

According to him, the poor working conditions of the card readers and the eventual usage of the manual system would lead to manipulations and other fraudulent electoral practices.

“When I came here, they just wrote my name in a piece of paper with some other names. My fingers were not marked with accreditation ink also. I complained to the INEC officials and they told me they were directed not to do so,” Ngige lamented, saying he was not going to be a part of a faulty election.

Majority of the card readers deployed by INEC did not work for hours into the election.

He said the elections should have been postponed after INEC realised that majority of the card readers were not working.

In a bid to check a possible crisis situation in the state, INEC directed all polling stations to revert to the manual process.

However, many candidates expressed worries when some polling stations later stopped the manual accreditation, citing orders from undisclosed authorities.

Ngige said INEC, by the rules, was supposed to have back-up card readers in the event of one failing. According to him, continual failure of card readers should justify a shift of the elections by the electoral body.

He said even President Goodluck Jonathan’s accreditation, which was done manually, should be disqualified by INEC.

The national chairman, All Progressive Grand Alliance and contestant for Anambra Central Senatorial zone, Chief Victor Umeh, said INEC messed up the electoral process by providing non-functional card readers.

He said, “As a result of this, voting was delayed for over five hours in most parts of the state.”