The Kogi governorship election, keenly contested by Prince Abubakar Audu of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Captain Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and other parties, has come and gone.
However, its echoes continued as the ACN has vowed to challenge the outcome of the election which the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, said the PDP won.
The election was conducted on Saturday, December 3, 2011.
Here in Rivers State, a Youth Corps member who was a presiding officer during the election, narrated her experience to The Newswriter.
Agnes Iyowumama Dick, who read marketing, was sent to Iyale ward in Ulaja local government area of Kogi State.
She said despite INEC’s claim that it had enough personal for the polls, she was the only one posted to the unit. There was no polling clerk and no polling assistant, as it ought to be.
She said Batch A and Batch B Corps members were used. Agnes noted that out of 976 persons that registered in the ward, only 348 turned up for accreditation, while only a little above 290 actually voted.
Due to logistics, she arrived at the ward a little before 11am and accreditation that was supposed to start by 12pm, began at 2pm.
Yet, she has to end the voting by 4pm because it was a remote village without electricity and she had a long way to go.
She affirmed that the corpers were well-trained and warned not to accept any gratification.
The corper who has not received her allowance for the duty performed, said she was still willing to serve her fatherland whenever she is called upon to do so, adding that the PDP scored 161, while ACN scored 111, in her ward.
She said trouble that would have disrupted the peaceful voting was averted as observers and others arrived on time and the only police officer present had to shoot into the air. ###
