Maiharaji Altine, Gusau
Presidential and National Assembly elections were conducted peacefully in all the 14 local government areas of Zamfara State on Saturday despite the security challenges facing the state.
Our reporter who visited most of the local government areas of the state during the election discovered that the elections went smoothly without any hitch, while voters were seen casting their votes without fear of being attacked by hoodlums.
The elections which was supposed to start by 8 o’clock in the morning was however delayed for several hours owing to the non-supply of election materials in most of the polling units. Some voters who could not wait for the materials to arrive disappointedly left the centres and promised not to come back.
Another setback recorded during the election was poor turn out of voters, particularly in the rural areas where people had to be begged by politicians to come out and vote.
A voter who gave his name as Malam Musa attributed the poor turn out to the non-challant attitude of politicians towards the upliftment of living standards of their people,.adding that “immediately they win elections, they abandon their people and will not come back to us until the election period”.
Another reason for the low turn out of voters was that, some polling units that were situated in rural areas where the bandits usually launch their attacks were relocated and merged to safer places for security reasons, as such, many voters affected by this arrangement did not go out to vote.
Addressing newsmen on the issue, Governor Abdul Aziz Yari had assured that, this would never affect election results, stressing that, it was the highest votes that would make somebody a winner.
The Governor commended the people of the State for their patience and perseverance during the intra-party squabbles that nearly tore APC apart.
Meanwhile, the state INEC Commissioner, Hajiya Asma,u Mai Kudi, has strongly warned social media users to be very careful about publishing fake news, particularly on unofficial election results, saying anybody caught spreading fake information would face the wrath of the law.
She advised journalists to always contact her office before publishing the results, maintaining that she would release the results as soon as they were ready.
