Bayelsa Election: Protest Rocks Bayelsa As Thugs Force Electoral Officers To Abandon Duty Posts In Opolo

The aggrieved protesters, who displayed placards bearing all kinds of inscriptions, claimed that voting did not take place in the community and that hired thugs had been unleashing terror on all those trying to exercise their civic rights.

Some residents of Opolo in the Bayelsa State capital, Yenagoa, on Saturday took to the streets to register their frustration at the conduct of the governorship election in the state.

The aggrieved protesters, who displayed placards bearing all kinds of inscriptions, claimed that voting did not take place in the community and that hired thugs had been unleashing terror on all those trying to exercise their civic rights.

At a polling unit at Eribo Square also in Yenagoa, a member of the National Youth Service Corps was said to have gone missing after armed hoodlums attacked the place.

The hoodlums were said to have invaded the polling unit at 1:00pm, threatening officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission and others around the place in the process.

It was a similar story in Kogi where reports of violence and ballot box snatching has been the order of the day.

INEC officials were said to have abandoned polling unit 001 in Asuta Ward under Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area following beating by suspected thugs.

Earlier, suspected thugs had invaded the polling unit of Senator Dino Melaye, shot sporadically and carted away several ballot boxes.

Though counting of votes had ended in some parts of both states, there is disagreement among stakeholders and voters alike on the conduct of the exercise in Kogi and Bayelsa so far.