THE inability of aircraft to land at Gombe International Airport owing to thick “harmattan haze and poor flight conditions” that persisted in the North-East sub-region of the country at the weekend caused delay in distribution of ballot papers for gubernatorial and state House of Assembly elections in Borno and Yobe states, Borno State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Samuel Madaki Usman, said yesterday.
Usman, who spoke yesterday at INEC headquarters in Maiduguri while responding to issue of non-delivery of ballot papers to 12 Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) voting camps and some registration areas of Shani, Bayo, Kwaya/Kusar, Damboa and Hawul, said: “According to the electoral commission’s plan, ballot papers were to be received at Gombe Airport on Friday afternoon, but the aircraft could not land there because of bad weather conditions.
“The plane could not even land at the Maiduguri International Airport as the weather conditions from Harmattan forced the plane to land at Yola Airport, over 400 kilometres from Maiduguri to distribute the ballot papers for today’s elections at 3,928 polling units, including the ones at IDP voting camps in Biu and the metropolis.”
Confirming the non-distribution of ballot papers, the Presiding Assisting Officer of INEC, Mr. Tommy Magbuin, also said that with the exception of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), Jere, Magumeri and Gubio councils, the IDP voting camps and nine local councils in southern Borno State could not receive their ballot papers.
He, however, noted that voting in the affected areas was delayed and expected to resume yesterday (Sunday) as the Electoral Act of 2010 allowed the commission to extend the voting hours caused by late delivery of ballot papers.
“INEC has two options of delivering ballot papers from Yola Airport to affected registration areas of southern Borno. We either distribute the sensitive materials by military aircraft to Nigerian Air Force (NAF) base in Maiduguri, or transport or deliver them by road through Yola-Numan-Gombe-Bauchi-Potiskum-Maiduguri Road,” said Magbuin.
Meanwhile, at the polling units of Gubio, Magumeri, Jere and MMC, the electoral officers and voters did not encounter problems associated with card readers encountered during the last presidential and National Assembly elections.
“We have completed the voting exercise here in Gubio because the ballot papers were distributed last night; and in the following morning today (Saturday) by 11:00 a.m., accreditation was completed and followed by actual voting that took us only two hours to complete by 3:00 p.m. today sir,” said Emmanuel Musa, the Electoral Officer, yesterday in a telephone interview.
He said the turnout of voters from Gubio was not as large as the presidential and National Assembly elections, noting that the voters are not keen on their local elections compared to the national ones held two weeks ago.
