By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
Accreditation of voters and voting commenced at in many polling units our correspondent visited between 8 am and 9 am on Saturday.
The exercise was being done on a peaceful note with voters lining up for the exercise under the watch of security agencies.
Voters at Gadumo primary school,Ajaokutal Local Government Area of the state seen lining up to cast vote.
Reports reaching The Reporters indicate similar situation in the east and central senatorial districts of the state. Lokoja is in the west senatorial district of the state.
The elderly and those with one form of disability or the other were accorded respect and given priority to vote before other voters.
.
Prof.Yakubu Isa,Dean,Faculty of Law,Nile University, Abuja, in blue outfit,backing a commercial motorcyclist going to cast his vote at Bariki ward,Okene,Okene Local Government Area.
Officers of ICPC,NDLEA among others were also seen watching the conduct of voters.
Some voters, however,complained of not being able to locate their names on the voters’ list.
Contrary to the prediction that the exercise will witness political apathy due to the crisis that greeted the preparation for the election,findings by our correspondent showed that thousands of voters of more than 1.8 million eligible voters turned out to cast their vote, especially in Okene Local Government Area and women voters are not lagging behind.
Election observers as well as Civil Society Organizations, CSO, were also on hand to perform their duty.
One of them, Hamzat Lawal, who monitored the election in central senatorial district of the state,said INEC adhoc staff were timely in the discharge of their duties adding that electoral materials were also districted accordingly, adding that there was massive turn of voters in the district.
The Chairperson, KONGONET,an NGO, Amb.Idris Ozovehe Muraina,who monitored the election in Ihima,Okehi Local Government Area of the state,in a telephone with The Reporters, described the exercise in the area as orderly and peaceful,adding that the exercise witnessed large turn out of voters while in some areas, the population of voters was thin.
He,however,observed in complete election materials,especially the polling information which he noted could have guarded voters about what they needed to boost their efforts to exercise their civic responsibility.
