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Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State
By Francis Nansak
The Nasarawa State local government Councils elections held on Wednesday October 6, 2021 did not go as expected as sensitive materials meant for the election were not dispatched to vartaully all the 174 wards and polling units across the state.
Our correspondent observed and report that in Keffi, Nasarawa and Toto local government areas, election materials as at 1 pm on the election day, six hours from the scheduled time which would have been around 8 am, materials have not been distributed.
A situation which has generated tension in Toto,as both members of the ruling APC in that area and the opposition PDP have expressed their disappointment in the exercise.
Some of the aggrieved APC members under the aegis of Toto District Patriots, in a press briefing, alleged that materials for the election was brought into the council secretariat in Toto at around 5am, but to their greatest amazement, at past 1 pm no material has left the secretariat to any of the 12 wards .
Alhaji Abdullahi Shafas, who spoke on behalf of other patriots ,said even as a strong member of the APC, the way and manner the exercise was handle is not in the interest of the people as it contravened the principles of democracy.
According to him, this is not what we expected from NASIEC and the Nasarawa State government.
“We will not go through what was done to us in 2018, during the administration of the immediate past governor, Senator Umaru Tanko Almakura, where the Speaker, Alhaji Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, imposed his candidate on us and on the election day that same year, he (speaker) snatched ballot boxes and announced the election result in his favour.
He said” One of the surprising thing that played out was that an agent of the APC was caught with ballot papers ,who was wearing a vest in disguise as a staff of the NASIEC,but the securities did nothing to him.
“As we speak now, we were meant to understand that about 90,000 ballot papers was dispatched to Toto, but 36,000 have been reported missing, which information got to us from a reliable source that the missing ballot papers were taken to the the house of the speaker at Umaisha, the speakers, ward and that they are tomb printing the papers which will be what will be used as outcome of the result in the election.
“So we are appealing to the state government and the NASIEC to ensure that the right thing is done to avoid any breakdown of law and order in Toto”, Alhaji Shafas said.
While in Keffi, Kokona and Karu, sensitive materials for the election were not distributed until after 4pm.
Meanwhile the PDP chairman, Nasarawa local government area, Honourable Attahiru Osu in a press conference in Marmara, Nasarawa LGA, expressed disappointment with the poor but acclaimed election in Nasarawa local government.
He said election materials were not released for voting to commenced at the polling units up to 4:30 pm,scoring the exercise as unjust,unfair and shameful.
“Therefore we the PDP have decided here in Nasarawa local government area to withdraw from the exercise ,they would have told us earlier that they wanted to do a selective election. How can you credit a completely wrong exercise, as this one to be an election?
Coroborating, the BOT chairman, People’s Democratic Party, Senator Walid Jibrin,said what the NASIEC and the Nasarawa State government claim as an election is undemocratic, they only succeeded in murdering democracy naked, which is unfair to not only the PDP but other opposition parties, unfair to the people of Nasarawa local government and for the state entirely.
