By
Alkasom Bala
The Coalition of INEC Accredited Observer Groups has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections in three polling units in Fika Local Government Area of Yobe.
The units comprised of Manawaci 003, Tadangara 008 and Dambulwa 001 in Turmi and Malori wards.
The Team Secretary, Adamu Kowa made the plea during a press conference in Damaturu.
Adamu Kowa alleged that there were incidents of discrepancies between total votes cast in the units and total number of accredited voters.
Similarly, Kowa observed that there were isolated incidents of late arrival of materials, voters names missing on the register, technical challenges with BVAS, among others.
The secretary, however, said aside the unfortunate incidents in Fika, the elections were generally satisfactory across the state.
“ After carefully reviewing the February 25 elections, we hold that the elections were conducted peacefully in all the 178 registration areas across the 17 local government areas of the state.
“ Reports from the various local governments of the state showed that people conducted themselves peacefully at their various polling units, and arrived on time to exercise their franchise.
“ Most of the polling units were opened between the hours of 9:00am and 11:00, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines were used to verify and accredit voters.
“ Some of machines were very effective as it took less than ten seconds to accredit a voter. There were separate queues for women and special people in the areas visited.
“ The process was accreditation and voting simultaneously. This allowed a voter to cast his vote within short period of time,” Kowa said.
The scribe therefore commended INEC for deploying BVAS in the elections, saying the machine had reduced election malpractice to the barest minimum.
