Bayelsa: 36 INEC ad-hoc employees escape lynching

Posted by admin Bayelsa, INEC Politics, State News Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Indications emerged on Saturday that 36 ad-hoc employees of the Independent National Electoral Commission sent to conduct a rerun election in Ekeremor III State Constituency, Bayelsa State, escaped being killed.

Some of the workers who were on duty for the rescheduled election that took place on April 28 were reportedly bathed with fuel at some units in Ward 11 of Ekeremor Local Government Area.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr. Edwin Nwatalari, who disclosed this to our correspondent, said the unfortunate incident was carried out by aggrieved youths in the area.

Though Nwatalari did not disclose the altercation that led to the dastardly act, he said the attackers poured fuel on the INEC workers with the intention of setting them ablaze.

Fortunately, he said the ad-hoc employees who consisted of corps members escaped from their assailants and fled into the bush.

He revealed that the act created panic among the workers and forced them to spend a night in the bush.

Describing the incident as barbaric, Nwatalari said the workers were later rescued by soldiers deployed to the area.

He said the assailants went a step further to burn all the electoral materials deployed to Ward 11 for the election.

Based on the development, he said, election in the constituency had been cancelled and shifted to April 6. He added that the incident had been reported to the headquarters of the commission in Abuja.

But he appealed to the affected communities to embrace peace and allow the election take place as rescheduled.

Nwatalari commended the people of the state and security officials for cooperating with the commission throughout the period of the election.

He, also, thanked all the ad-hoc employees of INEC for their doggedness and fearlessness during the period of the election.

Summarising the results of the elections in the state, he said that 10 political parties fielded 31 candidates for the five federal constituencies, but that the Peoples Democratic Party won all of the seats.

The REC explained that out of the 20 candidates that participate in the senatorial elections, PDP candidates swept all the three senatorial seats in the National Assembly.

Nwatalari said 196 candidates from 22 political parties contested for the 24 seats in the house of assembly.

But he said out of the 23 seats so far declared, PDP won 21 while the remaining seats were shared by KOWA and the Labour Party.

Following the irregularities that trailed the National Assembly election, he said the commission constituted a committee of national commissioners to review malpractices in Bayelsa West Senatorial District and Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency.

The committee, according to him, ordered a rerun in the affected areas on April 27 and 28 but the election was stopped by a court order obtained by Senator Lokpobiri, a PDP candidate in Bayelsa West.

Nwatalari, who said that the rerun was successful in Sagbama-Ekeremor, remarked that the commission was working hard to vacate the court order.

-Punchwp_posts