The Secretary to the Jigawa State Government (SSG), Bala Ibrahim, said the opposition political parties shunned Saturday’s local government polls because of fear of massive failure.

Mr Ibrahim said this while fielding questions from reporters after casting his votes in Birninkudu town, Birninkudu Local Government Area (LGA).

He spoke against the backdrop of the boycott of the exercise by the opposition parties.

Mr Ibrahim further disagreed with the reason in some quarters that the opposition boycotted the elections due to the high cost of the nomination forms fixed by the Jigawa State Independent Electoral Commission (JISIEC).

He said, “It is because of the overwhelming support APC enjoys in the state that intimidated them, and they feel that they are going to waste their resources.”

The SSG said the All Progressive Congress (APC) had won elections at all state levels since 20215.

“So appreciate our opponents for maybe refusing to participate in the election because they know they are going to fail,” he said.

The SSG said the party fielded credible candidates for chairmanship and councillorship positions in the 27 LGAs.

He said, “The APC candidates are expected to work hand-in-hand  with Gov. Umar Namadi in order to serve people at the grassroots.”

Mr Ibrahim described the election as peaceful and gave assurance that the new leadership would provide a dividend of democracy to the people at the grassroots.

“Our governor has been acknowledged as a very innovative governor as far as governance and social and economic development are concerned.

“So, our elected chairmen will work hand-in-hand with him to develop the state,” he said.

The correspondent, who monitored the exercise at Lambun Fairah (442), View Centre (004) and Guruzawa (047), reports that the election was generally peaceful.

JISIEC had earlier announced that while APC fielded candidates for all the 27 chairmanship and councillorship candidates, PDP fielded two chairmanship candidates for Gwaram and Kafinhausa and councillorship for Kudai in Dutse LGA and Dubantu in Hadejia LGA, while NNPP fielded chairmanship candidate for Ringim.

(NAN)