THE Federal Capital Territory Area Council elections were held on Saturday under tight security. The exercise, which went on smoothly in most parts of FCT, was however characterised by vote buying, as the two major political parties tried to induce candidates to vote for their candidates.
Sunday Tribune observed that there was large turnout of voters in most polling units in Nyanya axis of FCT, with a lot of them expressing satisfaction with the smooth conduct of the exercise. All expressways into the Federal Capital Territory were barricaded by the security operatives in compliance with the order on restriction of movement during the election period.
At the Mararaba/Nyanya boundary checkpoint, the police literally used their patrol vehicles to block the road even though those on essential duties were allowed after hectic time by the security agencies trying to make way for them.
Sunday Tribune observed that representatives of some political parties positioned themselves strategically, dolling out between N1,000 and N2,000 to each of the voters in a bid to get their votes.
One of the residents who simply gave his name as Nathaniel said he collected the N2,000, even though this did not influence his vote for candidates of his choice.
“I’m happy with the smooth conduct of the election. It is a good thing that we have another opportunity of voting for people to that will lead us at the third tier of governance and as can see, the turnout here is high.
“On inducement as you said, I was asked to collect N2,000 after voting which I did. You know these people after suffering for them and they win election, you won’t hear from them again. The money did not influence me; I voted for the candidate of my choice,” he said.
Another resident of Nyanya, Hajia Usman commended INEC and security agencies for the orderly conduct of the election, saying in the polling unit where she voted, “everything went well and our hope is that our vote should count.”
Meanwhile, the exercise was also marred by epileptic operation of the Biometric Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) devices deployed for the polls.
Even though they came out early at the polling stations, voters were made to remain on queue for hours in many areas because of the slow accreditation process.
Many people in the areas monitored by Sunday Tribune were unable to perform their franchise as they left the polling stations frustrated by the malfunctioning BVAS devices.
In all, about 473 candidates are now waiting to know their fates at the conclusion of the polls. Out of this, 363 contested for 62 councilorship positions, while the rest battled it out for the six area council chairmanship posts.
The candidates came from across about 13 political parties approved to participate in the exercise; the elections were conducted in all six area councils of the FCT including Abaji, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kwali, and Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC). But the Senator, representing the FCT, at the Senate under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Philip Aduda, has faulted the process and conduct of the FCT Area Council Polls.
The senator, who bore his mind while casting his vote in his home town poling unit in old Karu, Abuja on Saturday said: ‘First let me say that the process here in this polling unit has been okay, you can see that I just came and accreditation was done and voting took place.
“But from all indications and from what I’m hearing from all over the FCT, there seems to be problems with the device machine, which we must look at, I don’t know if it’s deliberate, I don’t know what is happening, but these are issues that we must immediately look at, because there are pockets of complaints, in places like Garki, in places like Kwa in Bwari Area Council, Ogute.”
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