Buni Yadi and Buni Gari under Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State had a reasonable turnout of voters for the presidential and National Assembly elections.
The arrival of the State Governor Mala Buni to his polling unit sent the crowd of voters that gathered at the at Balturam Yerima 004 Polling Unit in Buni Gari, Gujba Local Government Area into a frenzy.
Shortly after casting his votes, Governor Buni spoke with journalists and expressed satisfaction with the level of preparedness by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC for the voting process and how peaceful it has been.
He commended the electoral body for the introduction of what he termed “innovation”, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS for the elections.
“It has actually helped in the area of ease of accreditation and the entire process. My general assessment is that so far so good, the peaceful nature of the conduct is commendable and more especially, I am impressed because when you look at this community it was one of the communities that were totally wiped by the carnage of the Boko Haram insurgency you can even say it was the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency in Yobe state but today you can see for yourselves that people are going about their normal businesses and especially today people are out to exercise their civic responsibility, so this is quite encouraging”
Governor Buni equally expressed delight with the fact that his people are now able to vote in their ancestral communities unlike in the past when they were in IDP camps voting outside their communities.
In the state capital, Damaturu, there were hitches experienced as some of the polling units started well behind schedule, some as a result of the late arrival of officials of INEC while others were as a result of a mix-up of the wrong BVAS machines meant for different units.
With this nonetheless, voters that turned out still waited patiently in the polling units that had such difficulties till the voting process started.
Similarly, the Emir of Damaturu, Alhaji Hashimi ll El-kenemi, cast his vote peacefully at Mairi 005 Polling Unit in Damaturu, located just beside the palace.
The El-kenemi, who spoke with newsmen thereafter, commended INEC for improvement in the electoral process and called on the commission to maintain the feat.
Overall, the town of Damaturu and some of the surrounding towns visited were very peaceful, calm and well secured as security agencies were mounted at strategic positions.
N.O
