Some voters in some polling centres along the Airport Road, Abuja, have expressed disappointment, as some of the card readers deployed to the units, failed to access network, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
While card readers in some centres were working and few others malfunctioning, the situation is different in some other polling centres where none of the machine was working.
At Aleita centre, two of the nine card readers failed to function and the voters were asked to wait for their replacement.
Also in Pyiwoi, one of the four card readers was not functioning and the Presiding Officer, Ms Ezinne Onyebuchi, said she had informed the Supervisor who would come and replace the card reader.
She, however, asked the voters to exercise patience while waiting for directive from the supervising and presiding officers.
At Zhidu polling centre, the whole five card readers failed to access network, according to the Presiding Officer, Mr Friday Ekpa.
Ekpa, while addressing the voters, said the accreditation and voting could not commence until the supervisor from INEC arrived at the centre to reso9lve the challenge.
“Card readers are not accessing network and so we cannot commence the process however we have informed the office.
“Our supervisor is on her way here and as soon as she arrives we will commence.
“We apologise and we are pleading with you to be patient with us as we expect that the issue would be resolved in the next 40 minutes,” he said.
In the same vein, some voters at Pyakasa used manual process to vote as four out of eight smart card readers were not working.
However, the presiding officer later announced the suspension of manual process at 1:50 p.m, stressing that he was waiting for further directive from his superior.
There was initial malfunctioning of the card readers at Lugbe Chief Palace Ward 008, which were later fixed by the electoral officer.
At Tundun Wada Polling Centre, there were four card readers out of which one malfunctioned earlier before it was replaced
“Accreditation and voting going on smoothly and it takes approximately 20 seconds to get a voter accredited,” the Presiding Officer, Mr Joshua Adeniyi, said.
At Lugbe Polling Unit 008, two of the six card readers also stopped working at 11:50 a.m.
The Presiding Officer, Mr Hilarry Zephaniah, however, told the voters that the malfunctioning Smart Card Readers would be replaced soon and voting would resume as soon as it was done.
In AMAC Housing Estate, new-Lugbe Polling 010, all the card readers were in perfect condition, same thing in Sunnyvale where all the eight card readers were functioning properly. (NAN)

– Feb. 23, 2019 @ 16:29 GMT |