Former Governor Olusegun Osoba of Ogun State was on Saturday disenfranchised by the newly introduced Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in Abeokuta as the electoral machine failed to capture the chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former governor and about three other voters were affected during the ongoing Presidential and National Assembly elections at Unit 15, Ward 14, Omololu House, Ibara Housing, Abeokuta.
BusinessDay reported that Osoba had visited the polling unit at about 11am to cast his vote, but the machine failed him both in facial and thump capturing.
Osoba later left the polling unit for his residence which is few metres away from the polling unit, but at exactly 2:13pm, the veteran journalist returned to the polling unit and the machine failed him for second time.
“I feel sad,” Osoba told newsmen, saying he had accepted his fate”, Osoba said during interview session with the media.
He said any attempt to cast vote after being denied accreditation by the machine would amount to an overvoting.
Similarly, in Ilaro, the Egbado South Local Government Area of the State, voters were stranded after the BVAS machine packed up.
The incident happened at unit 23, ward 1 in Ilaro as the voters who had arrived the polling unit as earlier as 7.40am to perform their civic duty were stranded.
Accreditation of voters was put on hold following the failure of the BVAS refused to work as the polling officers at the unit were seen struggling with the machine.
Speaking about the incident, one of the officers who spoke to some media men, said she had called her supervisor to report the failure of the BVAS, adding that another machine would be brought to the unit.
One of the voters, Agoro Waliu said, “we need to wait because INEC officials have done everything possible to make sure the BVAS work. Unfortunately, we have been here since and nothing has been done.
“To make sure that we exercise our franchise, we need to wait. The INEC officials told us that the machine ha refused to capture so we have to wait.”
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