‘INEC Should Make Provisions For Ad hoc Staff To Vote During Elections’

Many of the Coalition Officers who thronged the Independent Electoral Commission INEC office in Akure, Ondo State a day before the election penultimate Friday were disappointed as many of them were not given their letter of accreditation.

Some of them claimed that they received text messages by INEC that they should come for their letters but their names were not on INEC list.

One of them, a don at Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) Dr. Ibukun Femi, said that INEC should make provisions for its ad hoc staff who are on official duties to vote during election.

Speaking in Akure after collecting his accreditation letter a day before the last election, he recalled that many people across the country who were on national assignment for the election will be disenfranchised since there is no provision for them to vote in their areas of deployment.

“I have been posted out of the place I registered for the election; that is ward 11 in Akure South to Ondo East. If INEC had made provision for us to vote where we were posted, it would have been a great thing.”

He also regretted the delay in the deployment exercise by INEC officials in Akure, saying that so many people that were expected to be given their accreditation letters were not given. “Close to 400 people attended the INEC training, out of which they needed 240 people. That is because of the fact that they could not take everybody that applied to take part in the exercise.

“They had to weed out and selected the best and sent them for training. In some other states, some of them collected their letters two days before the election, others were given their letters before noon (12pm) today (penultimate Friday).”

He added that INEC has in its record the names of of those ad hoc staff that they have been making use of over the years.

“Those people that have been performing well and at a time like this, they ought to make use of them instead of starting all over again to train new hands.”

He regretted that many of them who were given letter very late, a day to the election will get to their destinations late.

“INEC officials justified themselves by saying that they were busy with other assignments, distribution of election materials to other places.

“To me, the preparation is not the best in Akure. In other states some of the coalition officers collected their letters two days before the election. They gave car stickers to people to move around without any problem.”

He is impressed by the turn out of the coalition officers.

“INEC should improve on their tagging system. They should make it easy for their coalition officers to move easily during election period in Ondo State. The calibre of people they have recruited for the exercise are men of high integrity who should not be embarrassed by anybody.”

He, however, commended INEC for improving over the years and introducing new mechanism to make it possible for peaceful and credible election.

One of the All Progressive Congress (APC) collation agents in the state, Mr. Bode Sumonu described the election as successful, saying that INEC performed above average.

“They have done very well. I have no doubt that the results would be credit-worthy,” he said.

According to him, INEC recorded a high success in reading the cards but the problem was confirming the biometric details of the voters. The reason being that, the electorates were not well educated on the new innovation of card readers.

“Some of them did not clean their hands properly before going for accreditation, so the machine could not read their finger prints.”

He, however, said that INEC created an alternative window for manual accreditation where the machine failed.

Meanwhile, the National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olu Falae said that the problem with the election has to do with the malfunctioning of the card readers even in his ward, Ward 5 Unit 1, Ago-Ireti, Akure North Local Council.

He told The Guardian that he could not be accredited due to the failure of the machine, stating that it was not INEC that failed but the technology behind the card readers, which ought to have been tested in a local election.

“Let us wait and see the outcome of the election. If the failure is massive, INEC will know what to do.”

He urged the electorates to desist from any type of post election violence which might result from the failure of the election, if not well managed.

“The fact that we disagree does not mean that we should not be friends. Nationwide, the election should be free of violence,” Falae said.

While the Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Isaac Eke described the election as peaceful as his men were deployed early enough to cover all the polling units in the 18 local government areas of the state.

He said that his men did not have any security challenge and the electorates did not have any problem except in the area of card readers.