The recent SUG elections has been cancelled. The University of Jos conducted the 2024/2025 Students’ Union Government (SUG) election on Thursday, 14th November 2024. The election, held online, took place across various faculties of the university.
Only students who had paid their school fees were eligible to vote. The total number of voters recorded was 2,095, revealing that many students were disenfranchised and unable to participate in the election.
Unfortunately, the election was declared inconclusive due to the inability of the ICT department to provide the election results. This issue sparked chaos among students, leading to protests in several parts of the university, particularly on the Bauchi Road campus.
In response, the Director of the ICT Department, Mr. Daniel Yakmut Inusa, attributed the issue to a technical problem. He explained: “The simple problem is a technical problem, that’s number one. I want to tell you in just two minutes what happened. The election went very well; there was no problem. The system was supposed to tally and allocate votes to different people who were voted for, and the system has done that. The third stage is that before voting was done, there was what we call keys that were sent to the electoral officers. One of the keys cannot be found.”
Mr. Henry Wuchinwe, a student from the Faculty of Education, criticized the conduct of the election. He stated that the process was flawed and suspected foul play. In his words: “I do not trust anything about this election, and I know that something is fishy about this election.”
Similarly, Mr. Otanwa Patrick Omoche from the Faculty of Arts shared his challenges during the election. He stated that he was unable to vote due to technical issues. In his words: “Today, I was not able to vote because my app was tampered with. Although I used it for my senatorial and parliamentarian elections, I couldn’t use it again. I faced challenges because I couldn’t log in. I feel online elections are better because there won’t be physical fights, but the school disenfranchising many students is something bad. I am not happy that the election was cancelled because I was hoping we could rest if they announced the results.”
However, Mr. Daniel Timothy from the Faculty of Education shared a different experience. He said he encountered no challenges, was able to log in, and voted without any issues.
The election was described as one of the most competitive in the history of previous SUG elections. So far, there is no official information regarding a potential rerun. However, many students are eagerly hoping for a free and fair election.
Report and videos by Yanaangoeret Darugun (SUG correspondent) (4/5)
Edited by Tersoo Stephen
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