Former President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed disappointment over the late arrival of election materials to his Polling Unit 39, Ward 13, in Otuoke, Ngbia Local Government Area (LGA) of Bayelsa.
Jonathan, who was expecting to cast his vote, stepped out of his house at 8:30 a.m, but met only journalists as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials were yet to arrive at the venue.
“Are you an electoral officer, where are they?” The former president asked a journalist at the venue, he continued, “Well this is where I will vote, but since they are not here yet, let me go back inside. “You see now, youths of nowadays, you need to do more,” he said.
Reporters revealed that as at 10:30 a.m, no official has arrived at the polling unit with materials for the exercise.
However, an hour later, reports came in that some youths suspected to be political thugs were involved in a heated argument over the movement of voting materials to various polling units in Otuoke, Ngbia LGA.
The incident happened at INEC’s Registration Area Centre (RAC) inside Community Secondary School, Otuoke. Materials were supposed to move from a RAC, to different polling units under the RAC.
People, including journalists and election observers, who were close to the scene left in a hurry when it was noticed that some of the youths were armed.
The angry youths had disagreed over the destination of a set of voting materials.
An INEC official, who spoke with one of correspondents on condition of anonymity, attributed the late distribution of voting materials to the stance of some of the youths in the community.
“Blame the community youths for the late distribution of voting materials. The materials came in around 11.30 a.m., but the community youths insisted we should not move them,” the INEC official, who was visibly angry, stated.
