The Kogi Government has attributed the general apathy that greeted Saturday’s House of Assembly elections to loss of hope by the opposition political parties in the state.
Mr Abubakar Bashir-Gegu, the state Commissioner for Solid Minerals, made the assertion on Saturday in an interview with newsmen in Gegu, shortly after touring some polling units within his community.
He claimed that the opposition parties had come out with full force in the Feb. 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections to dislodge APC, but they were disappointed.
“In fact, their joints became very weak after they couldn’t dislodge APC. They have completely lose hope to contest this house of assembly election.
“In virtually all the 21 local government areas of Kogi, you could see general apathy simply because the opposition parties shy away from the polls.
“Even though we are not happy about the low turnout of voters in this assembly election, we are optimistic of clearing or winning all the 25 assembly seats in the state.
“Our joy is that this election went on smoothly, peacefully and successful devoid of any rancor across the state,” Bashir-Gegu said.
The commissioner also attributed the superp and victorious performance of APC in Kogi to the wonderful and glorious performance of Gov. Yahaya Bello’s administration in the last seven years.
He said Bello is a unique leader, who has human feelings as demonstrated in his fight against Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) draconian monetary policy at the Supreme Court alongside two other governors.
Bashir-Gegu called on all members and friends of APC to continue to give their unalloyed support to Bello to continue with the good works he is doing for the desired growth and development of the state.
Most of the polling units visited recorded less than half of the number of voters that paryocipated in the Feb. 25 polls.
At Gegu near borehole polling unit of 1098 registered voters, only 400 persons voted, while at Under Tree Opposite Magistrate Court, only 95 persons voted.
The story is the same in most of the areas visited in Lokoja, Koton Karfe, Adavi and Ajaokuta Local Government Areas where some residents said that they avoided the assembly polls “because our votes no longer count”.
