Accredtation: Smart Card Readers shut out entire voters of 2 polling units in Bauchi

Entire voters of two polling units in Bauchi metropolis,
have been ‘denied accreditation by the Smart Card Reader (SMR).

A Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria monitoring the elections, reports that in Kobi Primary School polling units ‘A’ and ‘B’, not a single person could be accredited as at 9.45 am as the SMR had shut out all the voters.

Whenever a card was slotted for verification in the two
units, the machines kept indicating “accreditation already closed”. The INEC staff in charge of the two units, Mohammed Alhassan and Peterson Bagobiri, told NAN that they had reported the matter to INEC headquarters, and had been assured that someone would be sent to check the machines.

The staff said that voters had been patient and orderly in spite of the hitches. In other polling units, the
SMR’s had rejected finger-prints of several voters. In Kofar Aliyu polling unit of Makama Sarkin Baki ward of Bauchi metropolis, it took an average of eight minutes to accredit a voter, due to non-recognition of finger prints the card reader machine.