ABEOKUTA – Former Ogun State Governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba has expressed sadness over his inability to vote after the newly introduced Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) failed to capture him.
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.
Osoba had visited the polling unit at about 11am to cast his vote, but during the accreditation the machine failed him both in facial and thump capturing.
Osoba left the polling unit for his residence which is few minutes away from the polling unit.
At exactly 2:13pm, the veteran journalist returned the polling unit, but the machine failed him the second time.
“I feel sad,” Osoba told newsmen, saying he had accepted his fate.
He said any attempt to cast vote after being denied accreditation by the machine would amount to an over voting.
Our correspondent reports that in Ilaro, Yewa 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.
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.
The polling officers at the unit were seen struggling with the machine.
One of the officer who spoke to our correspondent said she has 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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