Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has decried apathy of voters in today’s gubernatorial and State Assembly elections in Bauchi state.
The speaker made the remarks while briefing newsmen immediately after he voted at his constituency primary school polling unit Gwaranga in Bogoro local government area of Bauchi state.
Dogara attributed the low turnout of voters in connection to the last Presidential elections where he claimed that some of the results were tampered with at the collation centres at local government levels and called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be fair and respect the wishes of the electorates.
The Speaker commended the people of his constituencies for being peaceful during the process of the election and urged them to remain law abiding.
Across some parts of the state, it was discovered that many voters did not arrive their polling units until midway into the voting process.
Across many polling units in Bogoro local government, the turnout of voters was not encouraging as compared to the presidential and National assembly election in the state.
At Dogara’s polling unit, Gwarangah Primary School in Bogoro local government with five voting points, the Assistant Presiding Officer, Miss Loveline Joshua said that though they collected all the election materials as early as 6.00 am, voters did not turn up until 8.30 to 9.00 am.
“The INEC officials came out to this polling unit as early as 6.30am, but the voters did not turn up until 8.30 to 9.am. Some are still in their houses and are yet to come out to vote. So far, the exercise has been going smoothly without any hitches,” she said.
Visits to Muari and Lusa polling units revealed that the only few voters were seen queuing to vote, while other residents of the area were going about their normal businesses, however, accreditation and voting were going on simultaneously with security men on standby.
ALSO READ: EFCC arrests politician with huge amount of money at polling unit in Benue
The presiding officer in charge of Muari ward, Mr Joseph Lutshi said that the exercise was going on smoothly, but that there was a low turnout of voters, blaming lack of enthusiasm on the part of the voters.
“By this time during the presidential and National assembly election, there was no open space here because voters were everywhere, but today, you can see that they are just coming gradually and we are still waiting for them”
He also commended INEC on the use of the card readers for the election but advised that more card readers be made available in future elections.