Supplementary Polls: PDP, APC Trade Words Over Vote Buying In Zamfara

The conduct of the Supplementary Elections at the two Federal Constituencies of Gusau – Tsafe and Gummi – Bukkuyum and Zamfara Central Senatorial District across ninety polling units in Zamfara State started late but were peaceful at the beginning of the exercise.

It later, however, turned rowdy at some polling units in Gusau the state capital, in places like Polling Unit 005, Sabon Gari Ward, where agents of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, was buying votes.

The allegation provoked violence which led to the temporary stoppage of the exercise.

The exercise resumed after the security operatives brought the situation under control, which enabled eligible voters to exercise their civic rights.

The agent of the PDP, Salisu Gusau, had raised an alarm that the APC had resorted to vote buying, thereby compromising the integrity of the exercise, and called for the cancellation of the result at Polling Unit 005, Sabon Gari Ward.

While the agent of the APC, Sanusi Gusau, on the other hand, countered and accused the PDP of bringing thugs to unleash terror on their party supporters and to scare them away from voting.

The senatorial candidate of the APC, Zamfara Central Senatorial District, Senator Kabiru Marafa, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the supplementary elections and said he did not see the election as a do-or-die affair.

On the issue of vote buying, he told journalists that from the reports he is getting, there was nothing like that.

Senator Marafa applauded the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for ensuring the early arrival of materials, and the smooth conduct of the exercise in the affected polling units in Zamfara State, Northwest Nigeria.