No electoral irregularities in Bauchi – Observers

By Christiana Ekpa

Foreign and domestic observers who observed last Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections in Bauchi State have denied the allegation made by the All Progressive Congress (APC) that the elections were marred by violence, voter intimidation and ballot snatching.
According to the group of observers, the March 18 elections were generally peaceful in Bauchi State without any rancour.
The group was reacting to an allegation made by the APC governorship candidate, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar (retd), who claimed that there was violence in some local government areas of the state as well as intimidation of APC voters, incidence of ballot box snatching and electoral fraud.
Abubakar had called for the outright cancellation of the governorship election result in the state.
While addressing a press conference at the Press Centre of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Bauchi, the coordinator of INEC Accredited Foreign and Domestic Observers Forum, Ambassador Charity Erhire, said though there was issue of crowd control in some units, they observed that the elections were conducted in a peaceful and conducive atmosphere in the state.
Ambassador Erhire informed that sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the elections were not only promptly distributed but also adequate, adding that electoral officials arrived in most of the polling units in time.
“We observed that the election was conducted in a peaceful and conducive atmosphere and all the political parties that participated in the election had their party agents in most of the polling units, especially APC, PDP, LP and NNPP,” she said.