Sultan didn’t vote in Sokoto governorship election

As early as 8.00am, journalists thronged to a polling unit inside the sultan’s palace to monitor when the sultan would be accredited for the election, but as at 12 noon, the deadline for the accreditation the Sultan did not come out of his house 3.30 pm, journalists waited for him, but he did not come out.

When contacted the secretary of the Sultanate, Alhaji Attahiru Hussaini said it was the constitutional right of the Sultan to either vote or not. “As I told you earlier, it is the constitutional right of His Eminence to either vote or not. I don’t have the power to speak for him in this regard. You can meet his private staff to talk to you on this and I cannot go inside to ask him,” he said.

However, our correspondent gathered that former President Shehu Shagari who is a counsellor in the sultanate voted at Shagari model primary school around 1.pm.

Our correspondent who monitored the election observed the high presence of security men in strategic locations of the state. Unlike during the run off to the election where area boys were carrying arms freely, during yesterday’s election they were nowhere to be found.  The election went smoothly in many polling units where our correspondent monitored the election.

Speaking on the election, the National Coordinator of the Independent Election Monitoring Group (IEMG), Barrister Festus Okoye said the turn out for the election was impressive.

“The turnout is marginally okay compared to what we saw in Adamawa and Bayelsa states. Nigerians need to be coming out for election. We cannot afford the situation where people are discharged from voting,” he said.

According to him, the level of security mounted in strategic locations contributed to the high turnout recorded in the election and hoped that outcome of the election would reflect the will of the people of the state.

Another observer, Murtala Abubakar of the Transparent Electoral Group (TEG) the election was peaceful. “The turnout is very slow and gradual in a sustained manner. What we are looking up to now is the collation of the result. We pray it is done in a transparent manner so that the will of the masses would prevail,” he added.