Bauchi Has 5, 417 Polling Units For Votes Casting – INEC

By Khalid Idris Doya 

Eligible voters in the 25th February and 11th March, 2023 Presidential/NASS and Governorship/State Assembly in Bauchi have 5, 417 polling units to cast their votes on the e-days.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Head of voter education in Bauchi, Aliyu Hassan Shaba however put the total polling stations at 5, 423, but six of them could not be used for the elections.

Malam Aliyu Shaba said that they were located in five LGAs areas of the state which included Bauchi (2), Garkuwa (1), and Katagum (1).

Shaba, at a one-day sensitization for free and fair elections yesterday organized by the Bauchi state chapter of FOMWAN, enlightened youths and women who were participants at the event on the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for accreditation of voters.

“The BVAS would use voter’s thump for accreditation, if your thump did not take, then it would use picture. After accreditation, one of the polls officer will issue you with a ballot paper with which you would go to voting que to make your choice and debit it into the ballot box.

Shaba added, “The BVAS will accept the use of thump, face or backhold of the voter’s card. So if you don’t have PVC, you will not be allowed to cast a vote. If you don’t have network in the area, it does not preclude that elections will not hold, for BVAS works without network”.

Also presenting a paper at the event, the chairman of Bauchi State Muslims Ummah, Engr. Ahmad Yusuf spoke on dangers of electoral violence, occassioned by trauma, killings, and devastations such as it happened in Kenya in 2007 elections where over 1130 were killed or murdered.

Engr. Ahmad Yusuf, also chairman Coalition of Muslim Organizations in Bauchi state, recalled that shops, clinics and schools, among others were devastated in Kenyan elections, stressed the need for Nigerians to learn a lesson from that episode, saying “Any crisis can portend danger to many people including the person or those who ignite it”.

While urging the youths not to allow themselves to be used by anybody, Engr. Yusuf said, “One may give you N1, 000; N10, 000 or anything, but the end result will be killing your country. Our youths should understand that, youths somewhere are thinking to become leaders, just like Yakubu Gowon became the leader of Nigeria at the age of 31 years”.

Engr. Yusuf therefore called on Nigerian youths to shun a situation where they would feel sub-servients rather thanking of building their country, saying, they should take from those who cares with them and concerned about their future so that they don’t go sub-servients to other people, killing and maiming the Innocence.

The Amirah FOMWAN Bauchj state chapter, Habiba Usman Sa’ad, organizers of the sensitization event, said that it was organized to create awareness among youths and women whom, she said, were mainly part of the election processes.

Habiba Sa’ad said, “We want to create a senario that is different from all other past elections in the country. We want to see a credible, free and fair elections in Bauchi state. We want a situation where the youths were not involve in political thuggery”.