Women defy rain to vote in Plateau North by-election

Residents of Riyom in Plateau State defied the heavy downpour to vote for their choice candidates in the Plateau North senatorial by-election on Saturday.

Reports from the troubled local government indicate that some of the residents, mostly women, who came in their numbers, clutched umbrellas, while some used polythene bags to cover their heads, as they awaited their turns to cast their votes.

At the  polling units in Riyom Central Primary voting centre, the women were joined by the elderly persons, who endured the downpour in their determination to vote.

A voter, Tabitha Haruna, said that many women had turned out because they were determined to vote for the right candidate.

“We have the interest and the passion for a good and peaceful society and we believe that the starting point is the election of good leaders,’’ the nursing mother said.

She advised women to vote so as to make their impact felt in governance, and stressed tit was no longer proper for women to sit at home and grumble silently.

“Women and their children benefit more from good leadership; they are equally the usual victims of bad governance, so we can no more (than) sit aside and allow others to decide our fate,’’ Ms. Haruna said.

Another female voter, Rose Gyang, said that women, as mothers knew the best among the many candidates.

“We know the candidates one by one; we know who is good and who cares about us and we shall demonstrate that with our votes,’’ she declared.

The by-election is to fill the vacancy created by the death, on July 8, of Gyang Dantong, a senator, in a stampede when gunmen attacked mourners at Maseh, a village in the Bachit District of Riyom Local Government.