The bye-election into the vacant House of Representatives seat for Ogoja/Yala federal constituency recorded massive turn out of voters on Saturday as chieftains of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the All Progressives Congress (APC), lauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its efforts.
Blueprint reporter who monitored the election in Ogoja and Yala said the materials arrived early in poling unit 005, St Michael Primary school, Ibil-Nkum, PU 008, Customary Court Nkim Ishi-Aya, and PU 002 in Nkum Iborr.
Blueprint also observed that the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation (BVA) machines functioned perfectly.
The same was observed in St Joseph Primary school, Okuku II, Yala local government area which accomodated seven polling units. A long queue of voters were observed waiting patiently to cast their vote as at the time of this report.
Speaking, the Senator representing Cross River north, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe of the PDP, said INEC was actually improving on its performances from what was observed on ground and lauded the electoral body for the introduction of BVA.
“Although the process is cumbersome as compared to what we had in the past, it is a plus to our democracy. I just finished voting after being captured by BVA. From what I have seen, it will be difficult to rig, that is, if there is no bypass anywhere along the line. INEC is doing well.
“We have done well as a nation but we are not where we were yesterday and with the signing into law of the amended Electoral Act by Mr President, we are good to go. On this election, the process is going on well,” he stated.
In his reaction, the Senior Special Adviser to Governor Ben Ayade on Political Affairs, and chieftain of the APC, Chief Peter Ojie, said he was happy that the exercise was peaceful and hitch free as no complain whatsoever was being reported.
Ojie also expressed happiness over the massive turn out of voters to participate in the exercise, and believed that before the close of voting, more people could have voted.
