Nigeria is holding its Governorship and State House of Assembly elections in 28 states on Saturday March 18 and thugs have reportedly hijacked and burnt election materials for three wards in Ogbia Constituency 2 in Bayelsa State.
The elections come two weeks after the controversial Presidential and National Assembly polls held on February 25.
Eight hundred thirty-seven candidates are vying for governorship positions while 10,240 candidates are contesting state assembly seats across the states where the election will hold.
Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed to Ogbia Constituency have ran for their lives and are reportedly heading back to Yenagoa the Bayelsa state capital, as the hoodlums are on the rampage, and it appears there will be no election in area.
However, in other parts of the South-South geo-political zone, elections commenced early and peacefully, with officials in some polling units setting up as early as 7: 00 am and accreditation and voting commenced promptly around 8:00am in many polling units monitored.
It would be recalled that the governorship election earlier scheduled for March 11, was postponed by a week by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to allow it sufficient time to reconfigure the Bi-modial Voter Accreditation .
Governorship elections will not hold this time in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo, as polls to the offices of governors of the states are held off-cycle and not part of the general election.
However, two National Assembly elections suspended by the Commission on February 25 will hold today in Edo and Enugu states, alongside the governorship and state assembly polls.
INEC said elections are not supplementary polls as reported by some media platforms.
The National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, explained that the Enugu East Senatorial District election was countermanded to allow the Labour Party conduct a fresh primary election to replace its deceased candidate in line with the provision of Section 34(1) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“The second is the Esan Central/Esan West/Igueben Federal Constituency of Edo State following issues with the ballot paper for the election,” Okoye said.
He stressed that supplementary elections will take place on a date to be announced by the commission immediately after the governorship and state assembly elections.
