THE distribution of electoral materials to various polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta state were delayed for over 4hrs over the late arrival of party agents.
The Electoral Officer, E.O, in Ughelli North INEC office, Mr Osolease Samuel revealed this at his office while briefing newsmen in Ughelli.
According Osolease, “The materials arrived on Thursday and I sent messages to the parties agents so that I can start distribution, they all saw the message and keep quiet.
“I did a reminder to them, i called so many of them, political leaders, party chairmen and secretaries and they keep telling me, we are coming, we are coming, and we never saw them.
The Commissioner of Police in charge of Delta Central held meeting with all the DPOs and EOs, and i made it clear to them about my challenge.
I told them that i am ready to distribute my material by 10:am but i cannot do that unless i want to burn the office and i told the CP that i have done everything i can to call these people but they refused to come.
“And Ughelli North has the largest polling units with 400 polling units, the largest in Delta state and you can imagine the quantity of electoral materials to be distributed.
“To distribute the ballot papers for 400 units is something else because of the volume and that was why i wanted to start early but they refused to come.
“My projection was that by 6:am, all should be on their way to the polling units but unfortunately no single party agents were around and it looks as if it was a planned work because same thing happened in Uvwie and Okpe local government areas.
“The delay is not on INEC but the parties failed to come on time and there is no way I could have distributed the materials on their behalf.
Reacting to the non availability of electoral materials in Unit 24, 25, 6 and 3, voters expressed the displeasure over the absence of INEC, officials.
Mr David Omotor from unit 24, Succes Ojevwe from unit 6, and Mr Ese Onome from ward 12, said, this is almost noon and we have not seen without materials and at the end results will be declared.
At Osubi in Okpe local government ares, the governorship candidate of the PDP, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori who casted his vote at about 11:20 am in unit 33 of ward 6 in Okpe described the exercise as peaceful.
He said, “I did my voting by 11.20 am and the process was very slow but we i thank God that voting has commenced and hopefully we are sure of victory because we have worked very hard as a party.
“The election is peaceful and i hope it is going to be peaceful all through and i want INEC to improve on what they have done now, we started by 11 :30 am instead of 8:30 am
“They know we have done very well and for all we have done in Delta state, and as you can see here, we are sure of victory for Atiku/Okowa, the Senate and House of Reps.”
At Agbarho, the Managing Director, Business Development, Nigeria Export- Import, Nexim Bank, Hon Stella Okotete said, “The late arrival of electoral materials is a general thing but all we know is that the election has commenced.
“We are hopeful in line with the electoral guide lines that everyone on the queue will cast their votes, i voted at about 12.45pm and in the next election i would want INEC to pay more attention to the training of their staff, especially their SPOs to be more equiped to avoid delay in the distribution of materials.
