Last Updated on Saturday, 09 April 2011 11:35 Written by Mohammed S. Shehu, Bayelsa; Hamza Idris, Maiduguri; Auwalu Umar, Kano; Nurudeen Abdallah, Katsina Saturday, 09 April 2011 11:15

Bayelsa:

President Goodluck Jonathan has been accredited  along with his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan and his mother at  Otazi playground polling unit in his home village of Otuoke in Bayelsa State.

Immediately after the accreditation at about 11am, , the First family retired back home. They are expected to return to the polling booth by 12noon to cast their votes. Voting is billed to commence by 12 noon upon completion of accreditation of all voters.


Maiduguri:

Professor Tukur Sa’ad, the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) of INEC in Borno State has directed Electoral Officers in some local government areas to shop for ad-hoc staff who would replace some university lecturers and corps members that declined to report to their duty post as a result of security threats.

Though the REC did not named the affected local government areas and the total number of the trained staffs that are no longer interested in the INEC job, our correspondent  gathered that some ad-hoc staffs were molested by miscreants’ during the foiled election of penultimate Saturday at some polling booths.

“We have addressed all the problems now,” Professor Sa’ad said. “We held meetings with the police, army, civil defense and the SSS and have resolved to provide adequate security in all the 3,928 polling units spread in the 27 local government areas in Borno state,” he added.

“We have engaged 6,856 policemen for the National Assembly election which commences at 8am,” he said.

There are over 2,350,000 registered voters in Borno State who are expected to cast their votes today.

Similarly, the REC said polling centres that have large number of prospective voters in Borno State will have two boxes and three security operatives in order to beat time and ensure rancor free election.

Meanwhile, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff had in a state-wide broadcast advised residents to come out en-masse to vote. “The security threats are handy work of detractors but we would not be distracted by anybody,” Sheriff said.

Our correspondents reports that despite the security challenges, thousands of people have trouped out to poling centres for election.

Kano:

There is massive turnout of voters for the rescheduled national assembly elections in Kano. Unlike last week, the turnout of women is unprecedented this time around as their presence is all over the polling stations.

Our correspondent reports that voters started coming out for accreditation as early as 7:30am. In places visited like Dala, Fagge, Gwale, Minjibir, Gezawa and Nassarawa some voters were already in the polling stations by 7am in anticipation of crowd during accreditation.

Our correspondent also reports that in areas like Dambatta, Madobi, Municipal, Tarauni and Ungogo accreditation ended around 10am.

There was no complaint of either shortage or non delivery of election materials in almost all the areas visited by our correspondent and this is because of the measures taken by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to avoid problems.

It was gathered that distribution of election materials began as early as 3am and this is to ensure all election officers get to their respective destinations in good time.

There is also orderliness on the part of voters as every voter seemed calm on the queue for accreditation. There was report of violence in all the places visited. This might not be unconnected with massive campaign in the media on the need to remain peacefully during and after the elections.

Equally, there is law and order as security personnel were all over the places to ensure violence-free polls in the state. Soldiers from the 3rd Motorized Brigade were co-opted in the maintenance of law and order during the elections.

However, some women activists raised alarm that a number of house wives in some areas could not come out to vote because their husbands refused to allow them.

The activists therefore appealed to husbands to allow their wives to go exercise the civic responsibility by electing people of their choice.

Katsina:

CPC's Presidential candiate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari got accredited at Sarkin Yara Ward A at exactly 10:15am. He  said he was impressed with INEC's arrangements so far.

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