The Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), an election monitoring group says adequate preparation by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) impacted the successful conduct of the governorship election in Ondo State.The Board Chairperson of KDI, Dr. Abiola Afolabi, stated this on Saturday in Akure after the assessment of the election.

“Our field observers reported significant early arrival of election materials at the polling units, ,indicating the well-preparedness of INEC on logistical movement. “We commend the relative professionalism and adequacy of policing in the Saturday’s governorship election in the state.“We noted that the election process has been largely peaceful, with no major incidents leading to a breakdown of law and order in the early hours,” he said.Afolabi, however, acknowledged that while poll workers arrived in many polling units early, there were isolated cases of late commencement of polls at certain locations.“Of the 275 reports received from the field, 33.09 per cent indicated late commencement“Observations indicate that election officials arrived at polling stations between 6:30a.m.. and 8:00 a.m,, while voting commenced in those locations of the 33 per cent reported, between 8:45am and 10:00a.m.” he said.Afolabi added that KDI observed that the enforcement of restriction of movement and roadblocks by security personnel were handled professionally.He said the security personnel seamlessly allowed movement of essential workers in most of the local government areas.Afolabi said that Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned very well in the election adding that the pockets of incidence reported were quickly resolved making voting to hold peacefully.According to him, the KDI’s Election Day Data Room received 20 reports of incidents of violence among which only that in Polling Unit 3, Ward 5 in ldanre Local Government led to disruption of the polling units. (NAN)

Mr Venatius Ikem has described his alledged removal as the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Cross River by the State Working Committee (SWC) as faulty and against the party’s constitution.While noting his purported removal to be political, Ikem said he might consider legal action against the act.

He made his position known while fielding questions from newsmen in Calabar on Saturday. Ikem described the allegations against him put forward by the State Working Committee (SWC) as not only baseless, but an attempt made to portray him as misfit for the office he had held for over four years. It will be recalled that the state’s SWC had on Friday removed Ikem from office as the chairman of the party in the state on allegations of financial misappropriation, high-handiness and ineptitude.Immediately, the SWC announced Mr Austin Edibe who was the party’s Vice Chairman in the Northern senatorial district of the party in the state as his replacement.However, Ikem said, “Like they always say, you give a dog a bad name when you want to hang it.The truth is that to the best of my knowledge, I run one of the most efficient EXCOS of our party.“We meet regularly and I think in the last quarter or so we have had two stakeholders meetings we have our regular State Committee meetings and the stakeholders meetings.“Secondly, I think there must be issues to discuss, whenever there are issues and programme I am always there, we just had a party revalidation exercise this year, we had the party congresses this year we performed well.“The last local government elections, we stood up very strong and I am very proud of our outing despite the outcome given the circumstances“To me, I know and everybody knows that I am doing my best to run the party within the context we find ourselves. so talking about not holding meetings or ineptitude leadership is completely out of the question.“One of the problems I see in PDP is the hangover of being in government, we have been in government for so long that many people have never experienced being out of government.“They believe that things should be the way it used to be when we held sway in government house.“The drastic change to being an opposition party is not being properly absorbed by our members so their expectations are usually not what is possible in terms of availability of welfare, availability of funds for this and that, but even given that we have done very well.“The national assembly members have been very supportive, they have programmes and even with some stipends to support us monthly.”On the allegation of misappropriation of fund, Ikem who said he ran a cashless policy, said that the books were there for everyone to see.Ikem alleged that insecurity of a sitting senator was behind his alledged removal.According to him, my crime is that I am supporting Hon. Peter Akpanke against him (Senator). I don’t know whether anybody is contesting against him in 2027.“He used to say Peter wanted to contest against him, but Peter has said he is not contesting against him so I’m supporting Peter against him. Those are the underlying political issues.“These ones are just cover ups to say they have a valid reason. The real reason is political that I should not be supporting Peter.“For me, the same support I give to him is the same support all my elected officials are entitled to. it does not matter the positions they hold, so I cannot support him as a senator more than I am supporting other members,” he said.(NAN)

A Presiding Officer, Miss Angela Oshogwe, at the ongoing governorship election in Ondo State has said that the Bio modal Voter Accreditation System( BVAS) machine could not capture faces of some elderly voters.Oshogwe, manning Poling Unit 19, Ward 11 Olamojuba, Ondo in Ondo West Local Government Area of the state, said that she had lodged the complaints to the concerned authorities.

She added that the response she got was that the complaint was not limited to her polling unit, stating that the elderly had been waiting for long to vote without success. According to her, there is the possibility of the BVAS to function before the close of voting.Reacting to the complaint, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, told newsmen that the commission was aware of the development in “very limited” polling units“We are aware that in very limited cases, a few elderly voters couldn’t be accredited by the BVAS at first attempt. But, in subsequent attempts, the problem was resolved.“A Presiding Officer in one polling unit (PU) out of 3,933 PUs in Ondo State is not in the position to say how widespread a technical problem is.“From the reports at our disposal, so far, the BVAS is performing satisfactorily. It is not unusual for technical issues to occur in a major off-season election like the one we are conducting today.“We anticipated it and made adequate arrangements to respond to any type of challenge,” Oyekanmi saidA septuagenarian, Mrs Agnes Olapade, who was affected by the technical problem, said that she was disappointed that she could not vote due to malfunction of the BVAS.Olapade said she had been at the polling unit, with other affected elderly voters, since 8:00 a.m. without being able to vote.According to her. she voted in the previous elections without any difficulty.Similarly, Mrs Rukayat Olawoye, 87 years old, said that she came out because of the voting but was disappointed at the difficulty occasioned by the BVAS.Another septuagenarian, Mrs Ronke Fayankimi, stated that she and other affected voters would continue to wait, to see if the BVAS would capture their faces.(NAN)