Officials of the Department of State Services, on Saturday, arrived at the Polling Unit of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Dino Melaye, in Ayetoro-Gbede, Kogi State.
Melaye is one of the governorship candidates vying for the top executive seat in the State.
The Off-Cycle Governorship Election in Kogi witnessed late arrival of INEC officials at polling units in some parts of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that most places around Lokoja metropolis encountered the late arrival of officials and materials.
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INEC had announced that materials and officials were expected to arrive at their centres/polling units by 6:00 a.m.
Places like Adankolo, Lokongoma and Kpata encountered similar challenges.
Mr. Cornelius Stephen, a civil servant that came all from Kano to vote, expressed disappointment with INEC, which had assured timely distribution of materials and arrival of officials at polling units across Kogi.
“This election is different from what we experienced on Feb. 25 and March 18. You can see that it’s 7:40 a.m. already, yet only security personnel are around here at St Luke Primary School, Adankolo within Lokoja 1 Ward A,” he said.
The officials for the ward, however, arrived at 8:15 a.m. and moved to their various polling units.
Abiola choice, Presiding Officer (PO), said that they came late to St. Luke Primary School, Adankolo, because of late distribution of materials at the RAC Centre in Crowder Memorial College, Lokoja.
She added: “Even after we got the materials from the RAC (Registration Area Centres), there was no vehicle to convey us to the polling units.”
“As you can see, we are trying to set the tables and also paste the voters registers on the walls for the voters to check their names to come forward for accreditation and voting.
“By God’s grace in the few minutes we shall be done with the setting for the accreditation to commence, ” Choice assured.
Again, there were no agents of the 18 participating political parties in some of the polling units.
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Voting in the ongoing governorship election has commenced after about three hours delay in Okpoama Ward, Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa.
Okpoama Ward Polling Unit-4 has 17 polling centres and is the electoral ward of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva.
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Recall that accreditation and voting across the ward commenced at about 11am after the initial delay in the sorting and distribution of electoral materials to the 17 polling centres.
Already, people have taken queues to vote for the governorship candidate of their choice in an orderly manner.
The area is calm as security personnel, party agents and INEC officials go about their normal duties.
A community leader, Chief Nathan Sobote, who voted at polling centre 6, Okpo play ground, frowned at the delay in the arrival of voting materials, but commended the peaceful atmosphere in the area.
Imo state governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Athan Achonu, and his wife, Aisha Achonu have cast their votes in the ongoing governorship election in the state.
Achonu, while, speaking shortly after casting his vote at his polling unit in the Omunumo community in the Ehime Mbano local Government Area of Imo State, commended INEC on the conduct of the polls.
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He appealed to INEC to redeem its image by ensuring transparency and credibility throughout the voting process.
Achonu said at first the residents were feeling threatened by the unusual security movement across the community and the state.
He said, “We have never seen such numbers of soldiers and policemen before in our community.
“But we have tried to assure them they are here for their protection and the process,” he added.
Incidences of vote buying have been noticed in some polling units in the ongoing governorship election in Kogi State.
Our correspondent noticed that many voters were discussing how they had been promised 5,000 if they voted for a particular political party.
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This is happening despite the deployment of officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to the state to tackle vote buying.
Such interaction was witnessed at a polling unit in Miami, around Adankolo area of the state where an agent of a particular party was seen seriously monitoring and trying to see who the voters voted before effecting payment at a nearby compound.
Also the same situation was witnessed at Angwa Pawa area of Lokoja, where mainly women were called to a corner and given a certain amount even before they went to cast their votes.
An election observer told journalists that one of the agents of a particular party approached him to vote for a party with a promise that he (observer) would be “handsomely rewarded” with N5,000, adding that because he was not wearing his tag as an observer he was taken for a voter.
Bayelsa State Governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Douye Diri and his wife, Gloria, have cast their votes at Kalama-owei Wari Unit 4, Ward 6, Sampou in Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA.
The governor commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for improving their facilities and training of personnel.
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Diri, who spoke to newsmen shortly after voting, however expressed concerns about the alleged restriction of PDP members and agents from Nembe-Basambiri.
He said: “I think this is an improvement on all other elections, that we have participated on, and it’s very seamless, very fast and if it continues like this, then I want to believe that INEC is improving not only on their facilities but the training of their personnel that are handling the process.
“It is too early to call, we are still putting our ears to the ground as to what is happening in other polling units, but here I’m very satisfied with the process and the personnel that is handling the process.
“But we have concerns about Nembe-Basambiri. Our party members, most of them have been excluded, our agents have been stopped from going into Nembe, that is a very serious concern. Our party has written to INEC and they have to take drastic action to ensure our people are allowed to vote.
“In any case, what we call for is a free, fair process where BIVAS should be used just as I have done here today, so let the accreditation be by BIVAS.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is investigating the fake results in circulation in Kogi State.
A civil society organisation, YIAGA Africa, had raised the alarm over the discovery of election results from Polling Unit 004, Eni Ward of Ogori/Mangogo area of the state.
The forged result was seen while voters were still in queue.
In the results, a copy of which was attached to the post, the APC polled 200 votes; AA scored 1; while ADC, PDP and SDP got 2 votes each.
In a tweet, the CSO wrote, “Dear @inecnigeria we received report of pre-filled results sheet discovered in PU 004, Eni Ward of Ogori/magongo in Kogi state before commencement of voting. Kindly investigate and address this issue promptly to safeguard the integrity of the process,” the post read.
At about 9.45am, the organisation posted another pre-recorded result sheet from PU 020, Eika/Ohizenyi, Okehi LGA of the state.
“Another case of pre-filled results sheet in PU 020, Eika/Ohizenyi, Okehi LGA of Kogi state,” it wrote.
According to the results, APC got 530 votes; while AA and SDP polled 1 each.
Responding after the tweets went viral, the commission said it viewed the situation seriously.
“Our attention has been drawn to a report that filled result sheets were discovered in some polling units in Kogi State. The Commission views this situation seriously.”
“Our senior officials deployed to the State are currently investigating the incident(s). The Commission will communicate its decision earnestly.”
Armed thugs have invaded polling units in Southern Ijaw and Sagbama local Government Areas of Bayelsa State and hijacked elections materials.
The thugs first struck at Agorogbene unit 6, 7 and 8 in Ward 11 of Southern Ijaw where they destroyed election materials.
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Attempts by some voters to challenge the armed men were replied with heavy gunshots.
They also stormed the Registration Area Center and carted away election materials of five out of the seven polling units.
At Ogiadiama ward 9 in Unit 14 of Southern Ijaw Local Government area, gunmen stormed the unit but were repelled by security men.
Sporadic gunshots were also heard around Abuja/Imbikiri area of Brass ward 2. Thugs also attacked the RAC center in Oginibiri in Brass Ward 8.
Police spokesman in Bayelsa State, CSP Asinim Butswat, is yet to confirm the incident as he was not picking his calls.
Residents of Magongo in the Ogori-Magongo local government area of Kogi State are protesting against the surfacing of pre-recorded results from polling units for Saturday’s governorship election.
The results had been written on the sheets while accreditation and voting had not even commenced.
The residents are currently protesting at Magongo RAC centre are displeased that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in collaboration with the officials of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had allegedly written results of the various polling units in the local government.
They described it as unacceptable to them.
One of the pre-written results of some polling units shows that APC scored 120 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) were allocated one vote each as their scores in the election that was yet to start.
