By Mohammed Nasir Shuaibu (Bauchi State Correspondent)
Some voters in Bauchi State have attributed the low turn out of the people during the mock accreditation exercise to inadequate awareness campaign from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Besides this, the voters also complained about the problem of some INEC officials posted to the polling units who can not speak the local language of the community, thus making the process very slow.
Abdullahi Adamu, 45 , who spoke with NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Newspaper Correspondent at Ajiyari Primary School polling unit, said many people were not aware of the exercise and that was why many people did'nt come out to participate.
According to him, "INEC concentrated their awareness campaign at the state capital, leaving out the rural communities. Had it been that INEC came down to the grassroots level using local information dissemination like the town crier to inform the rural dwellers on the exercise, the turnout would have been more.
Another electorate also said the low turn out as experienced in the unit was as a result of inadequate awareness from the INEC. He urged INEC to intensify and improve on its awareness and sensitization campaigns across all nooks and cranny of the 20 local government areas of Bauchi State with a view to have more voters participation during the national exercise.
In his response, the INEC, National Commissioner in charge of Bauchi, Borno, and Yobe States, Modibbo Abubakar Alkali (Rtd), said the exercise is commendable. According to him, out of the six local government areas conducting the mock accreditation so far visited, the exercise is excellent because the figures are conforming robustly and optimally.
He noted that the turnout of the electorates witnessed in all the polling units visited was commendable and people were still expecting to come out before the closing hours of 2:30 pm.
Alkali also commended INEC for introducing the Biomodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), saying the machine is working faster and more smoothly, and within one minute, it captures the fingerprint without any waste of time.
The National Commissioner called on the women to avoid putting henna on their hand at least a week before Election Day to enable the machine to dictate their fingerprints.
He, however, called on the general public to always channel their complaints and join hands together with the INEC in sensitizing the general public, especially those at the grassroots level on the importance of the exercise.
Alkali said that the electorates should have confidence on the BVAS and that they should come out to vote because their votes will count. He said the whole process is very fair and transparent.
Alkali, said the mock accreditation of voters conducted in the state on Saturday using the BVAS machines was to test-run the system ahead of the February and March general elections. NNL.
