Some party agents clashed at the Arab Road Water Board Junction Settlement Polling Unit, Kubwa, Bwari, Abuja, during the voting process on Saturday afternoon, as voters besieged the unit in thousands.
It was observed that the party agents figured that many voters were not placing their fingers properly while thumbprinting on the ballot papers, a development that could render the affected votes invalid.
In a bid to address this, the agents started educating voters as they approached the cubicle, on how to place their fingers while thumbprinting on the ballot papers.
The action was opposed by some other agents, who felt their colleagues were subtly interfering in the process, as this eventually caused minor fracas among the agents.
To nip the issue in the bud, police officers on the ground had to step in, leading to verbal confrontations among the feuding groups.
The situation was, however, brought under control by the security officials, who then ordered the agents to give enough distance away from the voting cubicle.
Following the scenario that played out, the party agents then started educating the thousands of voters at the polling unit on how best to place their findings on the ballot papers while casting their votes, in order to avoid casting an invalid vote.
Meanwhile, voting activities at the various polling units in Kubwa, Dutse and Bwari, three densely populated suburbs of Abuja, were peaceful and well coordinated, as thousands of voters besieged their units to exercise their franchise.
The elderly, pregnant women and nursing mothers were given priority and allowed to immediately use the BVAS, confirm their serial numbers on the voter register and cast their votes in most of the polling units.
At the massive field of the Sagwari Primary School, Dutse Alhaji, Bwari, Abuja, for instance, voting activities went on smoothly at four polling units – 003, 046, 047 and 048, which had thousands of voters.
However, voters requested that the time of voting be extended beyond 4pm, as many persons would not have cast their vote by that time.
“You can see the crowd here and you’ll agree that it is not possible for everyone here to have cast their vote by 4pm today (Saturday),” a voter, Ademola Adebiyi, stated.
Another voter, Chnenye Obasi, said, “They just have to extend the voting time, otherwise they’ll end up disenfranchising thousands of voters today because there is no way most of us here would have voted on or before 4pm.”
