Inadequate Security n Low Turnout In Kwara

In Kwara State, the elections were reportedly marred by low turnout.

Reporter’s visit to some polling units Ilorin Idofian, Ipee, Ojoku among others showed low turnout, but Ajase Ipo and Offa maintained active participation of the voters with high turnout.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, the APC gubernatorial candidate in the elections, and the leader of the APC in the state, Senator Bukola Saraki, lamented the low turn-out of the elections.

However, the two leaders commended the peaceful conduct of the exercise, which saw voters’ turn out later being impressive in the state.

Similarly,   Minister of National Planning, Dr Abubakar Sulaiman, said the voters’ apathy was due to what he termed “the lacklustre attitude of security agencies in the last elections”.

The Minister, who voted in the same polling unit with Saraki, complained of inadequate security presence in the last elections and called on INEC to relocate the three polling units at Ode Opobiyi, saying they were sited in residential areas.

Another APC chieftain, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, who voted at his Baboko Ward, said many Nigerians expect a lot from the incoming administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, noting that they were not that concerned with the state elections.

Also, the Senior Special Adviser to Governor Ahmed on Media and Communications, Dr. Muideen Akorede, who commended the people for the “impressive turn out,” told journalists in Offa that his boss would be re-elected at the end of the elections.

But the Director General of the PDP Campaign in Kwara State, Deacon John Dara, said in Ipee, his hometown, that the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Senator Simeon Ajibola Ajibola, will shock book makers and win the election.