Apathy, late arrival of materials mar Cross River LG polls

Sensitive electrical materials arrived very late in the local government elections held on Saturday in Cross River State.

There was also voter apathy as polling units witnessed low turnout of voters.

In Calabar Municipality, for instance, materials arrived at 1:00 pm as against 8:00 am.

Many of the electorate who had waited from 8:00 am to vote got angry and returned home. But a few of them came back later to vote.

The polling officer at Abang Asang in Eta Agbor community, James Ogar profusely apologized for the late commencement, citing logistics challenges.

Candidate of APC for the Calabar Municipality, James Anam appealed to the electorate to be calm.

He commended them for tolerance and good conduct, stating that the party that worked harder and with better candidates can win.

He equally urged the voters to vote for his party, APC.

In Akpabuyo and Bakassi LGAs, the election started at about 10:00 am with sparse number of voters.

But generally, the atmosphere was peaceful as voters trickled out, authenticated their names and voted.

The State Security Adviser in charge of Southern Senatorial District, Navy Captain Odiong Bassey (rtd) told journalists that security men were fully on ground in all the centres to contain possible public disturbances.

“We’ve security men all over the place. We’re happy that everywhere is peaceful.

“We patrolled all the councils and the presence of our men in all the polling centres is confirmed. There have been no security issues, at least in southern Cross River State.”

A PDP polling agent in Ikot Effiom Primary School Ward 7 Bakassi LGA, John Peters, said his party’s members came out in good numbers to vote.

At Ekpri Ikang Primary School voting unit, Mrs Esther Akiba expressed optimism that the ruling party, APC, would win in that area as they were the only visible party on ground.

According to her, the party will bring better public amenities to the council.

Similarly, vice chairmanship candidate of the APC for Bakassi LGA, Mrs Essien Archibong Eso observed that the conduct of the election was peaceful.

An official of the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission, CROSIEC, Edim Orok Okon explained that the Commission was able to dispatch all the sensitive materials to the wards early enough.