From ABBAS GUNGURA, Bauchi
As Bauchi, Ningi and Katagum Local Government Areas in Bauchi State join in the 3rd February 2024 re-run election for the state Assembly constituencies of Bauchi State, whose election in 2023 general were nullified by the Appeal Court in Abuja, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the process so far was peaceful across 42 polling units in the state.
The commendation was made by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Commission in the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Nura, shortly after going round some of the polling units to monitor the process.
According to Alhaji Nura, so far, the exercise has been peaceful in all the 42 polling units.
“There was no issue of malfunctioning of election machines, materials and missing names of voters”, the REC further disclosed.
“By-election is ongoing in 42 polling units of four state Assembly constituencies, in three local government areas of Bauchi, Ningi and Katagum,” Alhaji Mohammed Nura, explained.
While expressing happiness over the large turnout of voters, the REC in Bauçhi commended the voters for conducting themselves in an orderly manner. He noted that due to the large turnout of voters, the commission was compelled to inform security agencies to deploy more personnel for crowd control.
Alhaji Nura who expressed satisfaction with the zeal of the voters coming to cast their votes accordingly, advised political parties to play by the rules of the election and shun ballot snatching, vote buying, and thuggery among others.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner also advised the voters against interfering with the counting and announcement of election results.
He therefore called on the voters to ensure that they stay 10-15 meters away from the center after casting their votes while awaiting vote counting.
In a related development, the Senator representing Bauchi South Senatorial Zone, Sen. Shehu Buba, while commending voters for responding to their call to come out in their numbers to vote for APC , blamed Bauchi State government and PDP for using huge amount of money through their unpatriotic agents to influence the voters to vote for candidates of PDP.
He described the situation as unfortunate, unpatriotic, retrogressive and shameful to the ruling party in the state that it can not win elections honestly. “This proves that PDP is not popular in Bauchi State, hence they only use money to buy people”. Buba explained.
