Organizers Put IMAN Awards 2018 Voting On Hold Over Phone Network Problem

Organizers of Islamic Music and Associated Nominees (IMAN) Awards, Different Stroke Media (D.S.M.), in a Press Statement sent to this medium, have put the voting for nominees in all categories of the awards on hold until further notice. This is said to be coming on the heels of telephone network problem which has been denying people the opportunity to vote for their favourite nominees.

According to the statement signed by the Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.) of D.S.M., Saheed Ojubanire, the decision was taken to protect the integrity of the awards in respect of the outcome of the votes in the long run. " My phone line has been inundate with calls from nominees for the awards complaining that the votes by their fans have been bouncing back since voting was announced to have commenced on October 1st." The statement read in part.

It was further revealed in the statement that the complaint was cross-checked by D.S.M. and was found to be true as, while votes sent via MTN lines were bouncing back, the Airtel votes which seemed to be going were not also getting to the control panel where the votes were supposed to be compiled, which means the votes were hanging. " We immediately communicated the situation to the agency handling our short code and they told us it is a network problem which the telephone service providers are still working to resolve. But since they could not give us a time frame of when the problem would be resolved precisely, we feel it is best we put the voting exercise on hold for the time being." The statement disclosed.

In assuring nominees that everyone of them still have a level playing field to win in any category they are in, the statement added that nobody is at an advantage because nobody's vote has been recorded so far. And before voting would resume, it would be well communicated to everyone to know and tell their fans to begin to vote. But for now, everyone is advised to hold on.

In conclusion, the statement added that nothing is going to change about the already established aspects of the awards such as the nominations, the Hall of Fame designates, but the date for the awards may change depending on how much time is lost to solving the telephone network problem. "We need to give enough time to the voting exercise so that every nominee can gather as much votes as they can before winners would emerge," the statement concluded.