Paul Osuyi, Asaba
A cross section of voters in Asaba, Delta State, stormed their voting centres on Saturday in readiness to cast their votes in the postponed presidential/National Assembly elections.
The prospective voters said they were not aware of the postponement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the early hours of the day.
At Uzoigwe Primary School, the voters were seen standing at the locked gate at about 7.30am wondering why officials of the electoral umpire were yet set up machinery for the conduct of the poll.
“I am disappointed; I came from afar to vote only to be told the election has been postponed. I came from Edo State on Friday because I registered in Asaba before I was transferred to Edo. Now I am stranded, no voting,” one of the voters, Momodu Michael said.
Also, a female voter, Mrs. Okolie, said the postponement was a ploy to discourage voters from coming our massively to vote for candidates of their choice, insisting that no amount of postponement would deter her from voting in this year’s general elections.
Meanwhile, socio-economic activities had started picking up slowly in Asaba following the postponement of the elections.
Streets were devoid of heavy vehicular traffic even as late as 9.am while business centres were gradually opening for transactions.
At the state headquarters of INEC, the situation was calm. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Cyril Omorogbe, shunned journalists who sort his explanation on the postponement.
Omorogbe told newsmen that he had other priorities to attend to than speak with journalists before walking away.
Reacting to the postponement however, spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign council, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, described it as unfortunate, adding that Nigerians were disappointed and urged all to be patient.
“We want to encourage us not to despair or get disappointed. We want to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for providing all that is needed to conduct this election. However, we want to urge INEC to put its house in order within the number of days of this postponement, and deliver a free, fair and credible election,” Ojougboh said.
Most candidates for the National Assembly including Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, Ndudi Elumelu both of the PDP did not take their calls neither did they respond to text messages as at the time of filing this report.
A candidate of the APC for Ika Federal constituency, Sebastian Okoh, did not also answer calls to his cell phone either.
But the state chapter of the PDP in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Ifeanyi Michael Osuoza, urged party faithful to remain resolute, alleging that the postponement was necessitated by pressure on INEC to rig election.
Osuoza said it was regretable that INEC shockingly postponed the elections as a result of what the electoral umpire said was issues with logistics and operational plan.
“This postponement is shocking to us first, because of the reasons adduced by the Chairman of the INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, citing logistics and operational challenges. We condemn these action by INEC as untenable, since the commission has been given all the financial resources and has had four good years to plan and put in place adequate logistics and fine tuning of its operational plans for the elections.
“We say this because, all along, there had been insinuations and clear pointing of fingers at furtive moves by elements extraneous to INEC bringing pressure on the electoral body to postpone the election, because the cabal in Aso Rock and the Presidency have reasons to believe the situation on ground does not favour President Muhammadu Buhari winning the elections, as a result of the preponderance of the electoral strength weighing heavily against his return as President.
“Second is that we are shocked by the insensitivity of the electoral body to the implication that it had not worked hard enough at providing sound logistics and operational plans to the stakeholders who have spent huge resources and were set for the elections, but are now made to suffer losses by this postponement. We condemn this in very strong terms, and warn that INEC must not yield to the pressure of those in the Presidency and the APC to rig Buhari and the APC candidates in, as Nigerians are resolute in their rejection of Buhari as president and the APC administration as the Federal government.
“We urge all PDP leaders, members, and supporters not to despair at this postponement. Rather, we should take it up as a challenge that must be given the required attention and overcome it.
“We therefore, urge our supporters and members to remain resolute by working to achieve the plan and purpose to ensure that the PDP at all levels wins the elections, from the presidential election, that is voting in Atiku Abubakar as president, the PDP senators and members of the House of Representatives, to the governorship by voting massively for Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as our governor for a second term and all PDP House of Assembly candidates,” the statement read.