Guber polls: Bayelsa, Kogi, most difficult states to conduct elections in Nigeria – INEC

…warns political gladiators against inciting violence

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned the actions and utterances of political actors were likely to militate against peaceful conduct of the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa.

The National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, who spoke on Tuesday when he visited the office of the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council in Yenagoa, said unguarded actions and utterances of politicians could lead to the breach of peace during electioneering, voting and collation of results.

Mahmood, who was accompanied by senior officials of the commission and security agencies led by the Zone 5 Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Dibal Yakadi, also complained about the use of armed thugs to disrupt the voting and the collation processes.

Describing Bayelsa and Kogi as the most difficult states to conduct major elections, Mahmood further said the commission was further bothered about the ugly trend of voting buying insisting that democracy should not be on sale in the open market.

He said the commission was deploying 10,000 ad-hoc employees in different parts of Bayelsa for the exercise, adding that INEC would not allow anybody to attack them.

Addressing the council led by the Amayanabo of Twon Brass, King Alfred Diette-Spiff, the INEC boss said: “We have a few areas of concern.

“The first one is action and utterances likely to lead to the breach of the peace during electioneering campaign, during voting on the Election Day and during the collation of results.

“In 2015, up to the eight local government areas in Bayelsa State, we conducted elections conclusively and made declaration of results only in one local government area, Kolokuma-Opokuma.

“I have been asking all my friends in Bayelsa what makes Kolokuma-Opokuma thick?

“Today, I have the opportunity finally to actually visit Kolokuma-Opokuma and I was in Kaiama and the staff assured us that just as it happened in 2015, it will happen again.

“Next is the recurrent problem where some unscrupulous actors follow voters to polling units with money on Election Day to induce them. It is called vote buying.

“Our democracy cannot be on sale in the open market. The citizens should be allowed to vote for whoever they choose in the Election Day.

“We appeal to you to continue to speak to politicians and their supporters on peaceful conduct during the campaign process and beyond”.

On why all eyes would be on Bayelsa and Kogi, Mahmood said: “First, this will be the first major election since the 2019 general elections in Nigeria.

“What lessons have we learnt since the conduct of the general election that will help us to improve on the forthcoming governorship election?

“Secondly, Bayelsa and Kogi are not easy states when it comes to conducting major elections particularly governorship election.

“The challenge is particularly in terms of the terrain and therefore it has an impact on electoral logistics.

“But another great challenge is the attitude of the political class which has become a source of concern to the commission”.

The professor also said that the House of Assembly election would hold in Brass Constituency 2 in Brass Local Government Area on the same day scheduled for the governorship election.

Mahmood said the commission was ready to conduct peaceful, free, fair, credible and conclusive election in Bayelsa and appealed to the traditional rulers to make suggestions and contributions that would change the narrative in Bayelsa.

Ditte-Spiff commended INEC for seeking the advice of the traditional rulers in the state and appealed to the commission to prevail on security agencies to reduce military presence during the election.

Addressing Mahmood, he said: “The military presence in the last election was too much.

“They were brought here by one or two candidates. They also after the election eliminated one or two persons.

“You will need to appeal to the army in particular to try to contain their men so that they would not go off the handle and scare people away from the polling units. One or two areas are not approachable.”