Voters abandon Jonathan, Buhari

After a close monitoring of the elections in three senatorial zones of Ebonyi State on Saturday, our correspondent observed that the voters, especially in Ebonyi North and Ebonyi Central senatorial zones, hardly cast their votes for any of the presidential candidates.



A voter in Ezza South Local Government Area (Ebonyi Central senatorial zone), who pleaded not to be mentioned, said they were compelled to cast votes for only candidates seeking election into the National Assembly.

“The candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Congress, the Labour Party and All Progressives Grand Alliance were busy urging us to cast votes for them and leave.

“They kept telling us that we could get confused if we tried to vote for presidential candidates, the Senate and House of Representatives at the same time,” he said.

At a polling booth in Ngamgbo-Nwelle, Ezza South Local Government Area, a lawmaker, Tobias Okwuru, was seen urging the voters to cast their votes for him and other candidates in his party and leave the scene.

Okwuru is of the Labour Party and represents Ezza South/Ikwo federal constituency in the House of Representatives.

A voter at the polling booth, who identified herself as Nneka, said, “We were told to cast votes for our candidates seeking election into the National Assembly and leave. We were told that we may get everything mixed up if we stayed back to cast votes for Goodluck Jonathan or Muhammadu Buhari.”

She said, “For instance, I came out to vote for APC in the presidential election, then vote Labour Party for Senate and House of Representatives, but they kept telling me that it could get confusing and I might mix up everything. So, I voted for the National Assembly candidates of the Labour Party and I left.”