Hon. Linda Ikpeazu casting her vote at CKC Onitsha
BY SUNNY A. DAVID
What look like voters apathy in most Polling Units in Onitsha the Commercial City of Anambra State as voting commenced in Polling Units around 9am, took a dramatic turn later in the day with many voters turning out enmass to cast their votes when it became clear to them there was no security threat.
One of the voters who voted late was member representing Onitsha North and South Federal Constituency, Hon. Linda Ikpeazu, who arrived at CKC Onitsha at exactly 2.20pm, where she immediately cast her vote and expressed delight on the peaceful conduct of the election.
Hon. Ikpeazu who visited the Polling Unit earlier in the day before she left later emerged at exactly 2.10, had her accreditation and cast her vote immediately.
From Ugbo Orimili Primary School Fegge Housing Estate Ward 2 Onitsha South, Local Government Area, which has over eleven Polling Units, to Inland Town Ward 5 with one Polling Unit there was high number of voters turn out from 12.30 as many people tripped out to cast their votes unlike the situation in the morning when voting started.
Speaking with newsmen Anambra North Young Progressive Party, YPP, Youths Leader Barrister Chubby Egbuche, a lawyer described exercise as free, fair transparent election ever conducted in Anambra State, contrary to the believe that there was going to be tension.
According to Barrister Egbuche, people conducted themselves well unlike what many thought would be a rowdy exercise, as INEC officials arrived with election materials on time.
According to him, “As at 1.30pm voting has been completed in this ward, as you can see we are just here waiting for the official closing time for voting so that counting will start, we are happy, everything is moving on well. You know this is inland town we have understanding here we don’t get involve in violence we conduct ourselves well because we are brothers and sisters irrespective of party affiliation.”
However voting was still going on in CKC Onitsha Ward 1 with five Polling Units, as at 2.19 pm, with over one hundred people lined up to cast their, vote. There was high level vote buying in CKS, as party officials openly discussed amount to be given to voters who cast their votes for their candidates.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige could not get his accreditation done in order to vote for over an hour due to the failure of the Biometric Voters Accreditation System machine.
He was at the Alor Ward polling unit in the Idemili South Local Government Area of the state during the exercise. Moreso, he put the failure rate of the machine at 30 per cent.
Ngige insisted that he would wait until he voted despite the setback. The Minister called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to find a way to resort to manual accreditation in such circumstances to allow people to exercise their franchise.
He said, ”I have been here for over an hour without success. I’m not impressed.”
Ngige said, “The failure rate is between 25 to 30 per cent. This is not encouraging. INEC ought not to pack its equipment after each election. They should have tested their machine a week before the elections in a mock trial.”
Anambra Decides: Voters bemoan faulty card reader at Ngige’s polling unitBased on the situation, the minister further made calls to some ‘high quarters’ to complain as he said,” I won’t leave here until I vote.”
