The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has expressed shock over the low turnout in some polling units in the ongoing Area Council Elections.
Wike shared his disappointment while touring some polling units and interacting with electoral officials.
At a polling unit in Karshi, the minister met a few electoral officials, but there were no voters.
After exchanging pleasantries, Wike asked: ”How is the turnout?”, to which the ad-hoc official, a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), said: ”We have only about 10 per cent of registered voters who came out to vote.”
Disappointed, the Minister asked: ”Only 10 percent? When are you supposed to start counting?”
“By 2:30pm, sir,” the corps member responded, to which Wike said: ”Hopefully, there will be another 20 per cent.”
One voter suspects manipulation of voter register where all his credentials were in the BVAS machine but he was denied voting because his NIN could not be found.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Moses Paul, had earlier blamed the low turnout on the restriction of movement.
He said the turnout was far lower than expected and attributed it to what he described as confusion created by the restriction directive.
He said he had lived in AMAC for about 40 years and had never witnessed such a situation, noting that the development appeared like “a state of emergency” over what he considered unwarranted.
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