By Hassan John
The Governorship and House Assembly elections have been marred by voter apathy in Masaka, a densely populated suburb in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
Findings by our correspondent revealed that all the polling units visited experience low voter turnout.
Many residents of the area attributed this to the February 25 election where the result, according to them, did not reflect their votes.
At Zheun Primary School, the polling unit officer lamented that the turn out drastically reduced compared to the one during the presidential election.
“I can’t understand what is happening today. This is 10:12am and we are yet to record 50 people. I can explain the reason behind it. Well, we are going to wait till 2pm, what we get is what we are going to declare,” the polling unit official said.
Also, at Area 1 primary school, our reporter saw very few people coming to cast their vote.
Expressing shock over the low turnout of voters, a voter-Ibrahim Sale, said: “I am surprised what I am seeing. During the presidential election, this place was full of people who were struggling to cast their vote, but today, the place is virtually empty.”
An agent of one of the political parties who refused to mention his name expressed concern that the low turnout may affect the chances of his candidate.
“I am not happy this morning. Despite the mobilization we did, still people refuse to come out to vote. I blame the government because people are not happy with the outcome of the presidential election, hence, they don’t want to come out again and waste their time.
“The federal government must be always be sincere in all that it is doing. What the federal government did during the presidential election is now going to affect good people who want to come and work for the people at the state level.”
A cross section of residents of Masaka who were seen walking around as if nothing is happening said that they would rather go and do other things or even stay in their homes than go to vote when the results will not reflect the voting pattern.
