The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has adjourned the state collation of results for the Bayelsa governorship election.
The Returning Officer for the election Faruk Adamu Kuta announced this late Saturday at the INEC Collation Centre in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. The exercise was also adjourned in Imo State.
He said the collation will now take place by 10:00 am on Sunday in both states. The election had been concluded in most parts of the states on Saturday evening.
The exercise was largely hitch-free in the oil-rich coastal state. But before the governorship election, an INEC official was abducted and later released.
The official was forcefully taken by his captors on Friday while waiting to board a boat at the Amassoma Jetty. A boat also capsized on the eve of the exercise with electoral materials lost, according to INEC.
Voters in Saturday’s poll also commended the election. But one of them, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is worried about the increasing number of off-season elections as Imo and Kogi residents also went to the polls on Saturday.
“I get worried by the issue of off-season elections. And I use this opportunity to plead with the National Assembly that we need to block these off-season elections. It is very odd; it is not a global best practice,” he said after casting his vote at Ward 13, Polling Unit 39, at Otuoke, Ogbia Local Government Area of the state.
“If we continue with this trend of off-season elections based on the interpretation of our laws by the judicial officers, it will come to a time when the presidential election will be off-season. Look at the American system, everybody knows when the American election will be conducted.”