The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu says the security arrangements put in place for the presidential and National Assembly elections are laudable.
The deputy senate president said this on Saturday in Enugu shortly after casting his vote in Mpu Ward III, Aninri Local Government Area of the state.
Ekweremadu seeking re-election however said such arrangements needed to be sustained throughout the day as it was early to conclude that everything had worked out well.
He said that while voting had commenced in some polling units of Enugu West Senatorial Zone, few places had yet to start.
He said that they were isolated cases of shortage of election materials and unavailability of result sheets across the 81 wards in the zone.
“We are witnessing a lot of challenges. My contacts reveal that voting has started in some places while other areas have challenges.
“It is too early to make conclusions that everything is going well,” the DSP said.
Ekweremadu complained on the quality of the voting ink which he said spread so fast and capable of rendering some ballot papers invalid during sorting of votes.
Also speaking, former Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime commended INEC for smooth conduct of Presidential/National Assembly elections.
Chime told NAN shortly after voting in his Udi ward 2 by 11 a.m, that so far, he had not received any contrary report except for late arrival of materials.
“I do not envisage any problem but so far INEC is doing well,’’ he said.
The former governor expressed satisfaction with the large turnout of voters which he described as `very impressive’.
A Presiding Officer in Amachalla 001 Polling Units, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that cases of card reader failure were few and far between.
“There are very few instances where the card has failed to authenticate the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) but we see the voter’s name in the manual register,” the officer said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the election in the ward witnessed massive turnout of voters including aged people who were assisted by their children to thumb print.
