The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Saturday defied an afternoon rain to cast his vote in the presidential and national assembly elections.
Ngige, who arrived at his Nkwo-Ide public square, Alor Ward 1, polling station 0010 at about 2:57pm, said he voted for the candidates of his choice.
The minister said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System didn’t recognise his fingerprint and face, initially, but later did and he voted seamlessly.
Ngige appealed to the electoral officials at the polling stations 006 and 008 where voters protested that the INEC officials threatened to end voting after the official hours.
He told the INEC officials to extend their time to capture those who had been accredited since they didn’t arrive on time for the exercise.
The presiding officer in the polling station, Kenneth John, said that there were 328 registered voters in Ngige’s polling station, out of which 105 had voted, adding that in 30 minutes’ time they would round off voting.
He said, “I voted for candidates of my choice, according to my conscience. The exercise is peaceful and the exercise started late. I came around 10am but the officers were not here.
“I think they have some logistics problems. They started around 12pm. I think INEC should give extension of time.’’
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