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.”