Hello Nigerians and everyone here reading my post.
It's a pleasure to share with you my experience working as an INEC OFFICIAL in the Nigeria election which took place on Saturday 25th February 2023 and this day is really a day we will not forget in a hurry. One day we all as Nigerians are given the opportunity to choose who will rule the country in the next four years. The young were actively participating in this election with the intention of taking back their country. But this only will happen if the man of the youth wins and we anxiously await the results.
This happens to be my first time participating in an election. I am now an adult and a registered voter, though I didn't vote because I was working as an official with the INEC hence am not permitted to vote.
All my life I have never been this busy and worried. Seeing the way people were all out to vote for their candidate, despite the inconveniences they went through, they were patiently waiting for their turn in the polling unit. I was the APO1 which means I was the one handling the BVAS machine for verification and authentication.
My experience
We arrived at the INEC OFFICE on election eve, which was on the 24th . We stayed there till the next morning. The first thing we did was to meet with our polling unit team and we were given a brief training even though we have been trained for four days. The reason for the briefing was to ensure that we are all equipped with the basic information we need to know.
The next morning we were given the machine, ballots, paper and other materials needed for the election. We were told in the training that the election starts by 8:30. I was surprised to see that we left the INEC OFFICE by 10 to our polling unit. Reaching the polling unit, the villagers were already there to vote. We had to hurry to set up the polling unit there after one of us addressed them on the conduct of the election process, the rules and guidance on how to vote to avoid void vote.
When it was time for us to start the election, we discovered that the password given to us was wrong. I don't know what really happened, but all I know was that it was sealed but couldn't open the BVAS. You need to see the villager, they were reacting and making noise hmmm, I was scared and began to worry since it was the one handling the machine. I pleaded with them to be patient and that I need to get back to the INEC OFFICE to get the RACTECH to fix the error.
Finally I got to rectify the issues, I was surprised that the password given to us was wrong but how on earth will they do such a big mistake, hmmm other unit were having the same issues but thank God mine was rectify, I went back to polling unit to see the villager still waiting in their numbers, this was about 1:00 pm. We started the accreditation and people started voting.
We had 657 registered voter, but at the end of the day we were able to acrreditate only 200, due to the fact that we started late and that there was a little fight among the villagers from different parties so we decided stop the election because the party agent from different parties came out to rig the election thereby fighting among themselves we decided to stop.
Finally after the fight, we had to count the vote, and the Presidential was won by APC and the senetoral so was won by the APC and PDP win the federal consistency.and after then we moved to INEC OFFICE where we submitted our machine and results sheet. We stayed there till Sunday morning the crowywas to much and the process was too hectic.
Well my prayer and wish is that as the results are coming let the hope of Nigerians