Abuja- The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), FCT, Prof. Jacob Jatau, has lauded the performance of the commission in the Saturday Presidential, Senate and House of Representatives polls at the Territory.
Jatau said this in an interview with the newsmen in his office in Abuja on Saturday.
“I am impressed with the high turnout of electorate as every polling unit in the FCT recorded massive turnout,’’ he said.
Jatau said although there were some hitches in the early hours but as at 11.30 a.m. most polls units in the territory had started accreditation.
“At the beginning of the polls we had some slight hitches especially with the opening of the polls, but after sometimes we were able to overcome the hitches and the polls were opened.
“As you are aware the commission had directed that anyone who stayed in the queue on or before one o’clock should be accredited.
“So we followed that guideline and we were able to do accreditation in many places,’’ he said.
He said that arrangement has been made to provide light in some centres where voting was still ongoing.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there was late arrival of the materials to some polling units in the FCT.
On the issue of extending the election, the REC said all the elections in the territory would end Saturday.
Meanwhile, some electorate at voting point three, Unit 001 of Kuje Central Primary School in Abuja have commended the INEC for conducting a free and fair election.
Speaking to NAN after the results of the unit were collated, they said the election would indeed be tagged free and fair across the country if it went the way it did at the centre.
Mr Musiliu Lawal, a businessman who waited to see the votes counted said that INEC had indeed lived up to expectation.
“The election is free and fair. If what happened here is what happened in other places then I am satisfied.
“I pray what happened in this polling booth happened in other places because it has been peaceful right from the accreditation to the balloting and now to the counting of the votes everything is satisfactory.
“The security personnel have done their job very well and I’m okay. Everything went well no problems and I want to score INEC 90 per cent,’’ he said.
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Mrs Ogechukwu Ananyo, also said that the election at that unit was without rancour and that the officials were very courteous.
According to her, the conduct at that unit was a true representation of what election was about.
However, at Tukpechi ward, Mrs Naomi Dabana although commended the process but she said it was too stressful.
According to her, the queue was too long thus the voting time was delayed.
She, however, said that INEC should improve on the process to ensure that electorate do not have to wait too long to cast their votes.
NAN reports that at as 6:30p.m many polling booths in Kuje Area Council had not finished voting.
In Mpape, Abuja, voting went smoothly, while the security officials operated in a friendly manner.
Mr Obinna Uwerem told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that INEC needs to improve in the area of distribution of its materials and logistics in the future elections.
“I was not happy when I got here as at 7:45a.m INEC officials were not on ground.
“INEC needs to improve on its operations,’’ he said.
According to Mr Isaac Ogedemgbe, the electoral body did well and deserved commendation.
“I am impressed with the performance of INEC because the elections are going on smoothly.
“Though the process started very late, it has been smooth and the card reader is quite fast and will go a long way in reducing electoral fraud.
“The voting process has gone on smoothly and you can see that there is no security threat as anticipated,’’ she said.
Collation of voting was still going on in Mpape as at the time of filing these reports. (NAN)
