Each space, according to one of the youths, who gave his name as Habu Shuaibu, sells for between N100 and N200.
Shuaibu, who described the ‘business’ as ‘lucrative’ said he makes between N500 and N600 before noon every day.
“I make an average of N500 before 12noon everyday. Sometimes it is usually N600. The business was good before but now people are protesting against it,” he said.
A resident of Ali Marami Housing Estate in Damaturu, Malam Maikarfi Usman, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday that some of the youths arrived at the centres in Damaturu as early as 3.30am daily to acquire spaces on the queue and sell them (spaces) to willing buyers.
Maikarfi said, “I was at the Ali Marami Primary School with my family at about 4.15 a.m. and met three people already in the queue. They told me I was number eight but I did not see others except the three of them.
“So, I argued and they gave me the fourth position. They secure many spaces and sell them between N100 and N200 to those who are in a haste to register.”
But as more would-be -voters complained about the difficulties in getting registered, the Independent National Electoral Commission assured that the theft of some Direct Data Capturing machines in some states in the country was not a threat to the voter registration.
Before the assurance was given by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, seven of the DDC machines, electronic equipment used for the voter registration had been reported stolen in Langtang, Plateau State on Sunday.
Seven machines had ealier been stolen in Bayelsa and Niger states on Thursday.
But Idowu, said, “There is no way those who stole the machines can download the contents in our register.
“If a stolen machine is used in registering people, its contents cannot be downloaded into INEC register. Those stolen DDC machines, therefore, are not threats to credible elections.”
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, had admitted on Thursday that the voter registration suffered problems initially.
He blamed the problems on the scanners, malfunctioning of batteries and the late arrival of the DDC machines.
In Jos, the INEC Public Relations Officer in Plateau State, Mr. Bencyn Ikpe, told one of our correspondents on Sunday, that thieves broke into the commission’s store and carted away seven DDC machines in Langtang.
He said that four of the machines were recovered in the bush by the police while the commission was still searching for the remaining three.
“The police have recovered four and are looking for the remaining three and we are confident that they will be found,” he said
Meanwhile, the Action Congress of Nigeria has described the hiccups associated with the ongoing voter registration as the “single greatest obstacle to free, fair and credible poll in April.”
The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, listed the registration of voters without the capturing of fingerprints, the disappearance of DDC machines and alleged over-supply of the equipment to the areas that are known to be strongholds of the Peoples Democratic Party as some of the problems.
It also said there were posers that INEC should urgently provide answers to in order to ensure that the country had a reliable voter register.
The ACN asked, “At what point will double registration by a single person be detected? Is it when the data collected after registrations are fed into servers at local, state or federal level? Once detected, how will this problem be addressed?
“Also, when underaged people are registered at illegal locations using the reportedly hijacked DDC machines, can’t they be bribed to vote on election day at unofficial locations? Is INEC aware of the reported registration of the disabled using illegal DDC machines? Can’t this lead to double registration, as those legally registered at a centre can be made to re-register as disabled using the illegal DDC machines?”
It said since a successful voter registration was ‘a sine qua non for free and fair elections,’ the country could afford to fail in ensuring that the ongoing exercise succeeded.
The ACN therefore warned INEC not to take anything for granted, because “unscrupulous politicians will stop at nothing to tamper with the registration exercise as a prelude to rigging the forthcoming poll.”
It also advised INEC to take every reported problem concerning the registration very seriously’ because do-or-die politicians continue to evolve ways to scuttle the holding of successful poll in the country.’
The party called the attention of INEC to stories making the rounds that the voter registration was programmed to fail, a situation which accounted for the massive, artificial hiccups.
“‘The rumour is that once the ongoing registration fails, INEC will have no choice than to use the old, discredited register - which it will claim to have cleaned up - for April’s elections. We hope this is not true,’’ it said.
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