Group condemns violence in Bayelsa election

A civil rights group, Alliances for Credible Election yesterday reviewed last Saturday’s gubernatorial poll in Bayelsa State and concluded that the election was a drawback from the path of electoral sanity‎ the nation had embarked upon few years back.

The governorship election of the oil-rich state was marred with violence in some areas leading to the alleged death of some people and rescheduling of poll in some areas.

Speaking with reporters at the Oyo State House of Assembly, the Acting General Secretary of the group, Mma Odi said the Bayelsa incident was a dent  on the nation’s march towards a free and fair polls.
She said, “the last Saturday experience in Bayelsa was a huge disappointment and draw back on the gains already recorded in the conduct of elections in the country”.

Odi had earlier led her group on advocacy visit to the Oyo State House of Assembly during which she made presentation entitled ‘Interrogating the current and emerging issues on the Constitutional and Electoral Reform in Nigeria’.

In her presentation, she disclosed that the purpose of the visit was to create an enabling environment for electoral reform as a priority subject among other constitutional issues for amendment and to engage and monitor the legislators on leading electoral reform issues to further enhance their acceptability of the reform issues.