At the Polling Unit 074 (Garki), Asokoro, Abuja, the highbrow home of Nigeria’s big and mighty, only six voters were registered for Presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives elections, and none of them turned out to vote.
Besides the big boys who ran away from Asokoro, many “rich Nigerians” have travelled in droves to the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and other parts of Europe for safety, perhaps, because of the permutations and apprehension over possible violence.
Many private companies’ chief executives in Abuja travelled before Saturday’s election.
On Wednesday, this reporter called a property firm to book an appointment with the chief executive, the response from a personal staff to the executive was, “Our oga and his family travelled last night. You can see him after the elections.”
Ditto with a call to a hotel proprietor in Area 11, Abuja: “My boss has travelled. He will be back anytime around March 23rd. Please call back,” that was the reply from the other end of the call.
Like in many polling units in Asokoro, Polling unit 074 is few metres away from four others on the same Crescent, Julius Nyerere Crescent, housing the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), headquarters, Abuja.
Many Abuja big boys had “japa-ed” before the Election Day.
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At the other four Polling units, Peter Obi polled 32 votes of the total 42 votes cast.
Again, most of the voters who cast the 42 votes are youths. And they were very proud they voted Obi, their choice candidate. They also didn’t leave the Polling units until the votes were counted, registered on the appropriate documents and uploaded on INEC system.
They were calm, orderly, and peaceful. One of them told one of the policemen to keep the peace and that “We look forward to a time when you retire, you will not die on the queue waiting for your retirement benefits and gratuities. Where you will be very happy you served Nigeria. That’s the Nigeria we are voting for.”
Above all, the election was peaceful in Abuja, everywhere was calm, peaceful and the BVAS worked very well in most of the over 100 Polling units visited by BusinessDay reporters.
From Kubwa, Gwarinpa, Jabi, Utako, Zones 4,5,6, Wuse 2, Garki, Maitama, Asokoro, Nyanya, Galadimawa, Kurudu, Apo, among other places.
