Voting begins 6p.m in parts of Plateau

By The Citizen

Voting began at 6p.m in some parts of Plateau, especially in Panskhin, Kanke and Kanam Local Government Areas, following the slow pace of the card readers in accrediting voters.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports on Saturday in Pankshin that some of the places affected include Nefur, Angwan Goje Polling Units in Pankshin and Kanam Local Governments.

Other places include Balang, Shepang, Nyellleng all in Pankshin, Kabwir Pada ward A and B, where some of the card readers failed to work despite the large number of electorate on the queue.

Most of the polling units had more than 2,000 voters, who were waiting to be accredited for the 2015 Presidential and National Assembly Elections without much success.

Some of the Presiding Officers told NAN that some of the card readers developed faults, while others had low batteries after the long hours of usage.

Mr Alonge Oloruntobi, the Polling Officer in charge of Angwan Goje polling station in Dengi Town, attributed the delay to lateness of arrival of materials and slow pace of the card readers.

'We have no option than to ensure we do the right thing as instructed by INEC and take the pain to go on with the voting into the night,' he said.

Also speaking, Ms Oparocha Uchechi, at Kabwir Pada's polling unit, blamed the delay in voting to the use of the card readers, adding that accreditation started after an engineer had rectified the problem.

Contributing, Mr Ibukunu Ajayi, a polling officer at Nefur in Pankshin Central, said they could only complete accreditation at 6.15p.m and voting began immediately.

NAN reports that the use of incident forms came handy at some of the polling units when finger prints of some voters were not recognised by the card readers. NAN