Onyekachi Eze 
*Says one person applied to register six parties
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decried voter apathy among the elites in the country, and attributed it as one of the reasons for poor voter turnout in elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at a quarterly meeting with media executives on Friday, said voter apathy is more experienced in urban centres than rural areas.
Prof. Yakubu, who gave a statistics of the 593 polling units in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with zero voters, said the majority is in Bwari and Abuja Municipality Area Councils.
“We don’t have problem with rural areas, we have problem with urban centres,” the INEC Chairman stated.
According to him, out of the 593 polling units, 469 are in AMAC alone, while 78 are in Bwari. AMAC is Abuja city centre where a majority of the well to do live, while Bwari houses the Nigeria Law School and the headquarters of the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB).
He explained that the polling units were empty: “Because voters failed to take advantage of the expansion of access to transfer to these new polling units.”
Prof. Yakubu stated that voter turnout in the 2016 Abuja Area Council election was just 10 percent, and appealed to the media to help in voter sensitisation in the February 12 election.
