#Nigeriadecides-Connected Development (CODE) has commended voters for the large turnout in Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections across the country.
Mr. Hamzat Lawal, the Chief Executive, of CODE, stated this at a news conference on Sunday in Abuja.
Presenting the organization’s preliminary report from Election observation through its Uzabe platform in Abuja, Lawal said that the voters’ turnout was impressive despite the challenges of logistics and the late arrival of officials.
He said that vote buying, electoral violence, and malfunction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) were some of the challenges that threatened the elections.
“We have reports of citizens trooping out in large numbers to exercise their civic rights, many of us have prayed for this day to come and a lot of us have invested time.
“Others invested energy and resources to make sure that the electoral process is carried out in tangent with INEC guidelines.
“However, we have heard some worrying reports in the South-East, some of the key issues bothered around delays in voting as INEC staff arrived late.
“In the Northeast, Borno precisely, CODE observers using the Uzabe app methodology reported that electoral violence disrupted the election,’’ he said.
He added: “We are concerned of security breaches in some parts of the North East. For example, we have noted an issue of voters and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff clashing.
“In the North Central, we have noted reports of shortage of voting materials at various polling units in Nasarawa, Benue, and Kogi.”
Lawal called on security agencies to activate their red alert in some of these areas to stem possible future violence.
Mr. Emmanuel Njoku, CODE’s Director of Democracy and Governance, said that there were incidents of ballot snatching in some states in the North-Central.
“In Kogi state precisely, as at 11:35 a.m., voting was disrupted after a fight erupted and voters were attacked.
“Ballot papers were torn and destroyed. And no voting happened at Dekina LGA, in the Udaba Dekina polling unit.
“There is also the issue of priority not being given to elderly persons/pregnant women in Okene LGA.
“In the South-South region, we have reported cases of vote buying in Cross River and Akwa Ibom, especially in Obot Akara LGA and at Akwa Ibom, in Govt Primary School Ubon Akwa polling unit,” he said.
The organization said that vote buying was also noted as politicians resulted to using dollar wrappers among others to entice voters.
CODE expressed worry over reports of party agents sharing food which is tantamount to vote buying.
