Enugu North bye-election records high turnout despite INEC delays and BVAS glitches, APC chieftain Ben Nwoye says.
Enugu — Voters across Enugu North turned out in large numbers on Saturday for the senatorial bye-election, even as many polling units opened late due to logistics problems.
The exercise covered six local government areas: Nsukka, Udenu, Igboeze South, Igboeze North, Uzo-Uwani and Igbo-Etiti. In several wards, people queued for hours waiting for officials and materials to arrive.
Speaking at Amube Ward, Polling Unit 7 in Udenu, the Deputy National Chairman (South East) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Ben Nwoye, said the turnout was encouraging.
He told reporters the process had stayed largely peaceful. "From what we have seen, the turnout is peaceful despite the logistics and technical issues. People are coming out in their numbers, APC members are voting, and everywhere I have visited, there has been no violence," he said.
Nwoye admitted voting started late in some places. He blamed the delay on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which moves sensitive materials from the Central Bank of Nigeria office in Enugu to the councils.
"It is really a logistics issue. Party leaders cannot fix it. INEC is responsible for the movement," he noted.
The APC chieftain said he monitored preparations on Friday night and saw officials struggling with difficult terrain in parts of the district.
He also raised concerns about the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System. According to him, BVAS failures and poor network should not happen at this stage.
"Even yesterday in Nsukka, I had serious network problems. Three networks on my phone were down. I do not know if it was a general outage or something affecting BVAS," Nwoye said.
At Iheaka Primary School in Igboeze South, APC candidate Ikeje Asogwa cast his ballot. The voting there was calm. Asogwa did not speak to journalists.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Nestor Ezeme, alleged that some persons tried to undermine the process. He did not give details at the polling unit.
Former Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, voted at about 12:20 p.m. at Amube Ward in Udenu. The process was orderly, with security operatives present and voters conducting themselves peacefully.
Similar calm was reported in several polling units in Nsukka town and other communities.
The Chairman of the Coalition of Registered Political Parties (CRPP) in Enugu, Dr. Afam Ani, who observed the poll with other monitors, described it as generally peaceful.
Ani said coalition members caught a young man who was allegedly impersonating a party agent. He was handed over to security operatives for investigation.
As of the time of filing this report, INEC had not announced official results for the Enugu North senatorial bye-election.
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