Voters in Benue State yesterday accused the Benue State Electoral Commission (BSIEC) of hoarding electoral materials, thereby disenfranchising them at the local government election yesterday.
In an interview with some of the voters including Aondofa James at Nulge polling unit, Rebecca Shaaide and Ene Adeyi of NEPA polling unit and other at High Level and Myon polling units in Makurdi, they lamented that they could not exercise their civic right to elect leaders of their choice.
Our correspondent who visited some of the polling units in Makurdi metropolis observed that as at 1pm most of the polling units were yet to receive electoral materials.
Some voters who spoke to our correspondent at North Bank polling units accused BSIEC of centralising the polling units, making the voting material available at only at ward collation centres.
The state caretaker committee chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Benjamin Omale, however, said he visited seven polling units in Makurdi before 11 am and election was going on smoothly.
The newly elected state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Ezekiel Adaji, on the other hand, described the election as a sham.
“It is now a few minutes to 2pm and I am here at my polling unit at Idekpa, headquarters of Ohimini LGA waiting for the arrival of election materials and electoral officers, we are yet to see any of them.
“We decided to participate in the election because we thought as a priest, he will be able to conduct free and fair election but this is something else,” he said.
The BSIEC chairman in an interview debunked the claim that election was centralized, saying materials were sent across polling units across 276 council wards of the state.