Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Unlike what obtained during the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections when voters turned out in large numbers to vote, the story is not the case at most polling units in Kaduna metropolis during the governorship and House of Assembly elections.
However, both accreditation and voting started as early as 8am in most areas of the city because election materials were distributed early enough to the polling centres across the state.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Alhaji Kaugama Abdullahi, had earlier informed that the issue of late arrival of election materials to some polling units and wards had been taken care of, adding that 8,012 card readers were dispatched for the elections.
Some voters interviewed noted that one of the reasons for the low turnout was the late arrival of materials witnessed in the last presidential election which kept many voters on queues for hours.
“So this time around, they thought the same delay would happen; they, therefore, stayed indoors and making call to find out the readiness of INEC officials,” Emma Ebong, a voter in Sabon Tasha area of Kaduna stated.
Another voter in Kakuri area, Isaac Aga, noted that the low turnout of voters could be as a result of speculations making the rounds that the ruling party might rig the election as alleged in the presidential election, hence many voters decided to keep off the polling units.
Also, it was noted that those who voted during the presidential election, allegedly without assessing their data through the card readers failed to turn up following earlier warning by the REC that there would be no voting where there are no card readers.
Another factor, according to political observers in the state, is the early warning about political violence in some communities where several people were killed and others injured.
The survivors in the affected communities in Kajuru, Kachia, Giwa, and Birnin Gwari local government areas are believed to be scared to go to the polls for fear of reprisal attacks.
But according to the Commissioner of Police in the state, Ahmad Abdulrahman, “we have finished our deployment; we have banned food vendors from the poll unit areas in order to stop them from the likelihood of accommodating vote-buyers.
“We have ordered a good number of helicopters to hover around the state during the election.
“We will pick up anybody wandering about without any PVC and keep him or her where necessary until the election is over.
“We have equally banned members of the vigilante from coming out with dangerous weapons during the election. In fact, we have arrested 34 of them so far; they look deadly.”
Zoomed out of item.