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• ‘Only 7.5% registered voters voted’
From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Although, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections have come and gone. The victors and the vanquished known, but the disenfranchised voters in the city are still suffering from heartbreak.
This is because they were not able to exercise their constitutional responsibility to vote the candidates of their choice. So, they feel less Nigerians than those whose names were on the ballot papers.
Mrs Chidi Uchechi is one of the disenfranchised Abuja voters. According to her, denial to vote was
an indication that the election would not be free and fair: “Dem don conclude the election. Otherwise, how come only Hausa and Yoruba names are on the ballot papers?”
Another voter, Emmanuel Chidi, complained that his name was missing: “Anyone whose name started with ‘C’ or ‘E’ is automatically excluded. I think it’s a deliberate attempt to exclude some people from voting.
“This is not the first time I am voting. This has been my polling unit and I have been voting with my voter’s card. Something urgently should be done before 2027 when the main elections will hold.
“They referred me to the complaints desk. But I will not go there. I have been here since morning and now they are telling me that my name is missing.”
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Esther Gwom did not also see her name. She went spiritual, handing over everything to God.
Abuchi, another deprived voter was frustrated: “I registered at Damanga Settlement, Polling Unit 156. I expected to vote there but my name did not appear there.
“I was told to go to Durumi 2. On getting there, my name was equally missing. I was so frustrated and I went home. In the coming elections, I do not know which polling unit I will go to.”
Timothy Osagie did not vote because Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) machine did not recognise his fingerprint: “They said my thumbprint did not match with the one they had. All efforts to prove to them that I was the same person that registered fell on deaf ears. I had to go home.”
However, in all the polling units visited, there were enough presence of security personnel including, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), FCT Police Command, deployed over 4,000 officers to ensure that over 2,822 polling units in FCT were well secured.
The Constitution stipulates that a voter is a citizen who is 18 years old and above and whose names and details are in the register of voters. However, out of about 837,338 registered voters in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) polls, only 7.51 per cent voted.
