YIAGA AFRICA, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has commended the people of Bayelsa for peaceful conduct in the Saturday governorship election.
Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, a Board Member of the CSO, gave the commendation in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) while observing the election in Yenegoa, on Saturday.
Nwagwu said though there were pockets of challenges including delays in opening of polls in the morning in some polling units including Otuoke area, the election was relatively peaceful.
“Generally speaking we had a good progress. There may be challenges in one or few places.
“From our information centre we know there are places where they beat up observers, ballot boxes were snatched but so far I think we don’t have the Armageddon that was predicted.
“You could see at the polling units that people of Bayelsa were enthusiastic to vote candidates of their choice,” he said.
Nwagwu also commended security agencies for their professional conduct, although there was a case in Otuoke where election materials could not be deployed on Friday at Registration Centre, because there were no security personnel to accompany them on Friday.
“Across everywhere we have seen better mobilization, the conduct of the security officials have been cordial and we have not seen them harassing people.”
Nwagwu also said that the Smart Card Reader functioned well in most of the polling units that his team visited, except in one complaint of malfunction.
