The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Agboola Ajayi, won his polling unit as results began to roll in from the governorship election in Ondo State.
Naija News reported earlier that Ajayi voted at his polling unit 4 Idumado Quarter Kiribo in Ese-Odo Local Government Area.
Results emerging later from the polling unit show that at the end of the election at the PU, the PDP candidate garnered 194 votes to defeat Lucky Aiyedatiwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who had just three votes.
A Presiding Officer, Miss Angela Oshogwe, has reported that the Bio modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine could not recognize the faces of certain elderly voters.
Oshogwe, who was overseeing Polling Unit 19 in Ward 11 Olamojuba, Ondo, within the Ondo West Local Government Area, indicated that she had communicated these concerns to the relevant authorities.
She further noted that her feedback indicated that this issue was not confined to her polling unit, as many elderly individuals had been waiting for an extended period to cast their votes without success.
She hoped the BVAS might become operational before the voting period concluded.
In response to the issue raised, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, informed the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the commission was aware of the situation occurring in “very limited” polling units.
“We are aware that in very limited cases, a few elderly voters couldn’t be accredited by the BVAS at the first attempt. But, in subsequent attempts, the problem was resolved.
“A Presiding Officer in one polling unit (PU) out of 3,933 PUs in Ondo State is not in the position to say how widespread a technical problem is.
“From the reports at our disposal, so far, the BVAS is performing satisfactorily. It is not unusual for technical issues to occur in a major off-season election like the one we are conducting today.
“We anticipated it and made adequate arrangements to respond to any type of challenge,” Oyekanmi said.