We have lost confidence in council elections – Gombe residents

Some residents of Gombe and Kwami Local Government areas of Gombe state say they had lost confidence in local government elections, as such voting in Saturdays’ election in the state, is not their priority.

Newsverge correspondent who monitored the council polls in those areas, reports that most people were busy engaging in other activities as against going to cast their votes.

In some of the polling units, only election officials were seen wailing away their time as there were no voters.

Malam Ali Bomoi, trader in Gombe, told Newsverge that he was not interested in the election because he had lost confidence in the exercise.

According to him, with the current situation in the country, his business is what matters most to him and not wasting his time casting votes that will not count at the end of the day.

He said politicians were unwilling to do the proper thing that would enhance democracy and progress.

Malam Mohammad Abba, resident of Mallamsidi town of Kwami Local Government Area, said he had monitored council elections conducted in some states and had noticed that the exercise was just mere formality as in all cases, ruling parties won in all the areas.

“Hardly do you find an opposition party winning a single local government area. We should better stop deceiving ourselves. As far as I am concerned, public fund is being wasted conducting the council polls,” he said.

Alhaji Bala Umar, another resident of Mallamsidi, said that local government elections in Nigeria would continue to remain a ‘sham’ so long as State Electoral bodies were to conduct them.

These so called elections are not things that serious minded people should bother about because it is not possible to have them conducted freely and fairly,” he said.

He said that he would not waste his time going to vote until the time Nigerians realised the folly in the exercise and hand over the conduct of the council polls to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Others who spoke to Newsverge expressed the same sentiment, saying that their time was precious and would only be used in areas that would produce positive results.