By; IBRAHIM ADAMU, Kaduna
Presidential and National Assembly elections have kicked off in Makera, Kakuri and Nasarawa, Kaduna industrial suburbs with late arrival of election officials and materials in virtually all polling stations within the area.
Our correspondent who toured round the settlements, reported that presiding officers were yet to report for duty as late as 11am in some polling units despite the huge turnouts of voters as early as eight in the morning awaiting to exercise their franchises.
At polling station 031 located along Old Market Road for example, officials and materials could not arrive until 11:22am, arousing suspicion among voters if there was a plan to disenfranchise the area.
The story was almost similar with what played out at Makera Unit 051 where the first voter to have been verified by the BVAS machine and cleared was able to vote at exactly 10am.
Some meters away from Unit 051 was Unit 020 and 017, located within Makera ward where voting commenced at 10:33 and 10:45 am respectively.
It was a cheering news however at Queen Amina polling station located along Kachia Express Road in Kaduna South which recorded arrival of election officials and materials at about 9:03am.
Aside the later takeoff of exercise in majority of places visited, voters decried slow pace of the voting process.
A voter who simply identified himself as Joshua Nuhu stated that it took him seven minutes to go through verification and screening process after queuing for over three hours awaiting arrival of officials.
Another resident of Makera who revealed to our correspond that she had spent over an hour going from one place to another looking for the appropriate station to vote.
“The process is cumbersome with our stations scattered, not properly arranged for easy identification and location by voters.
“You will spend hours looking for where to vote, hours again trying to que up and wasting precious time trying to get accredited before casting your votes, “she lamented.
Yusuf Mamman was another voter who expressed his disappoinment over the slow process of accreditation by the BVAS machine which he noted was taking an average of 5 minutes to verify and clear an individual for voting.
An agent to one of the political parties taking part in the election however lauded the process, saying it was a welcome development.
“I must commend INEC for this imaginative which I strongly believe will checkmate over voting and voting by proxies despite the long time it takes for accreditation and casting of ballot.
“It is worth the wait and stress if we can have a credible fair and peaceful elections after all.
“After the accreditation process which takes an average of three minutes, a voter is issued with three ballot papers, each for the respective positions taking place.
“The red box is for presidential election while the black and green boxes are for senate and house of reps respectively which I believe is impeccable and self explanatory enough,” he explained.
