Some residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja thronged as early as dawn their polling units to cast their votes in the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Our correspondents who visited some of the polling units in Garki reported that as at 6am, some of the units already had over 200 voters on the queue.
Some of the voters who spoke said that they arrived at the units as early as 3am.
At the Area 1 primary school polling Unit, Ahmed Bako said that he got to the unit as early as 5am only to meet over 100 persons already on the queue.
“I left my house in Mararaba as early as 4am so I can get here on time but I was surprised to see that there were already many people on the queue.
Our correspondent who arrived there at 6am reports that there were two separate lists: one had 121 names on it while the other had 97 names.
The situation was not so different at the polling units in Area 2 where our correspondent reported that residents came out in droves to await the INEC officials.
At the Area 2 Recreational Park, the intending voters were also seen in their numbers with the list already above 100 names.
Mr. Solomon Namabri who resides very close to the polling said that he started noticing people at the unit from 3am.
“I was monitoring the polling unit all night; I started seeing people coming as early as 3am. I had to come down at 4 a.m to write my name on the list when I noticed that the crowd was building up.
“In fact I noticed that from yesterday evening people were already sitting around in all the polling units in this Area 2,” he said.
At the National Library Unit, it was not so different. However the list was written according to gender: men had one list while the women had their own list.
At the area 11 polling unit by Racheal Eye Cinic, the voters were seen coordinating themselves as they queued up orderly to take their names.
Our correspondents report that the list had 167 names on it.
It was a similar situation also at the Area 10 Post Office Unit as well as the polling units at Area 7, 8, 3 and Apo Legislative Quarters as well as Durumi
At most of the polling units visited, policemen as well as operatives of the Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) were seen monitoring the units at a safe distance.
As at 7am, each of the polling units had at least five security operatives.