Ayade decries late arrival of materials

Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has decried the late arrival of materials for the Presidential, Senatorial and House of Representatives elections in most parts of the State even as he voted in his polling Unit 033, Ipong Ward by 2:08pm on Saturday.

It was learnt that gathered that the Governor, who was unimpressed and expressed sadness over the situation, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure all those who had come out to vote were not disenfranchised.

“Well I am surprised that the time is already past two 0’clock and I have just cast my vote at about 2:08.pm. We didn’t have materials until 1: pm and when the materials did arrive, there were no INEC staff available to attend to voters.

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“Worryingly, according to INEC, its Rack Technology System (Rack Tech) is switched off at a certain time in Abuja, what is the possibility that my people will not be disenfranchised. This is a heavily populated area and some people are already getting tired and itching to leave out of frustration. “

Ayade further disclosed that “as a governor and one who is also running for the Senate, if I could not vote until it was eight minutes past two, it’s also a big worry for me. Beyond that, I have equally received calls from other Polling units expressing concern about late arrival and non-availability of INEC staff.

“What this seems to suggest is that there’s a deliberate manipulation to ensure that the votes from Obudu are lowered, occasioned by the machines either not working or are being shut down. This indeed, is disturbing, to say the least.

“I hope INEC will allow every single person who has come here to vote to do so without being institutionally disenfranchised.”

Also speaking, the APC National Women leader, Dr. Beta Edu, who voted in her Ibalibo playground polling unit, Adadama, Abi local government area of the state expressed worry that the BIVAS machine was too slow in accrediting the over 800 voters in the polling unit.

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Dr. Edu said “As you could see, I have already voted. So far the election has been peaceful even though the BIVAS is a bit slow.

“People are getting accredited even though two or three persons could not be accredited probably due to face recognition issues or matters with their thumb print. Few persons have not been recognized by the system.

“The truth is that we have a good voter’s turnout. However, people say there is voter’s apathy in some areas in the local government area but generally, from the information at my disposal, voter turnout is encouraging throughout Cross River.”

Late arrival of materials was reported in most polling units across Cross River.