Source: UPI.com

ABUJA, Nigeria, April 26 (UPI) — Elections for state assembly and governor started Tuesday in Nigeria with few reports of violence, the country’s election commission said.

The Independent National Electoral Commission said large crowds lined up early Tuesday to vote despite earlier concerns about violence in the country, Nigeria newspaper NEXT reports.

Several people were killed ahead of a round of elections in early April. Riots broke out in the Muslim north of Nigeria after it was clear incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, won the election.

Jonathan easily won a full term in office in mid-April elections. He had assumed office after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua in May 2010.

The newspaper report said soldiers were on patrol as voters had their accreditation verified but many left the scene after voting started.

Past elections were marred by widespread violence and corruption. The international community had expressed early satisfaction with the overall political process.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Nigerian Red Cross Society said at least 12,000 people were displaced by conflicts that followed presidential elections earlier this month.

Source: Vanguard

FOMER President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba Tuesday hailed the performance of the Independent Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC), for its performance in getting things to the polling stations noting that things would only get better.

Obasanjo said “you know in this particular voting unit, the first, second and the third, it has been peaceful, orderly and of course the turnout has been more or less in line with average national turnout throughout the country.

“We need to educate ourselves and we need to understand what is happening. There are changes taking place in Nigeria and those changes have to be internalized by all of us and we have to adjust to those changes”

Former Governor Osoba said “I am very happy that the presiding officers came on time today. It has not been happening like that in the past. They have been there very early today and that has helped to make the process of accreditation much easier.

“I believe that Nigeria is at the verge of making history in the area of conducting free and fair election. The only regret is that this morning in this area we caught somebody in this area who has been going about with mobile police. This does not say anything good about the oppositions who have been trying to use armed policemen to intimidate voters. Anyway, we are investigating that. Outside of this, I am quite satisfied with the process. I discovered that Nigerians are now determined to ensure that their votes count.

“Although I have not received any report of violence from the field, but I am appealing to INEC to step up their activities and do the counting on time. Hoodlums usually come out between 2 and 3. If INEC do their job fast, the hoodlums will not have the chance of fermenting trouble. It is when they see evidence of losing out that they usually start their problems”.

Source: www.google.com

IKOT EFUM, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen fired Kalashnikov rifles in the air and others brandished machetes while storming a polling place here Tuesday, as voters in Africa’s most populous nation struggled to cast ballots after the presidential election sparked riots killing at least 500 people last week.

The attackers made off with the yet-to-be-voted ballots, the ballot box and the youth volunteer in charge of this village’s election in Akwa Ibom state, witnesses told The Associated Press.

While international observers applauded Nigeria’s legislative and presidential elections held earlier this month, the violence that has erupted in the aftermath has threatened the stability of this major U.S. oil-supplying nation in West Africa.

Problems had begun even before polls opened Tuesday for gubernatorial elections in about two-thirds of Nigerian states. Two elections in the states hardest hit by the postelection violence that left charred corpses along the highways are due to be held Thursday.

About 700 members of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps, who were supposed to run polling stations, already had been evacuated from states in the country’s Muslim north hit by violence last week, said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency.

“I just left,” said a 25-year-old woman who had been serving in the northern state of Gombe as a poll worker. “Very few corps members are left in the state because we were not safe.”

The one-year service program is mandatory for Nigerian university graduates younger than 30. Rules prohibit them from speaking to journalists.

Rioting broke out across the north when election results showed President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south, had won. Many in the predominantly Muslim north believe someone from their region should be in power because the elected Muslim president died last year before he could finish his term.

Tuesday’s gubernatorial races also carry tremendous importance because governors represent the closest embodiment of power many ever see in a nation of 150 million people. The positions provide many politicians with personal fiefdoms where oil money sluices into unwatched state coffers that exceed those of neighboring nations.

“They have the final power in the state,” said Pastor Regina Udofia, 37, who voted in Akwa Ibom’s capital city Uyo. “Their signature is final.”

The thirst for that power has encouraged violence and election rigging before in Nigeria, which has held marred elections since becoming a democracy 12 years ago. That remains the case in Akwa Ibom state, home to many oil fields operated by the Nigerian subsidiary of U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp., which has seen rioters burn cars and torch a Jonathan campaign office in recent weeks.

Just outside Uyo in Ikot Efum, voters stood by listlessly Tuesday after the gunmen stole the ballots. The two police officers assigned to protect the polling center carried no weapons of their own and merely sat down after the attack.

Down the road, a station wagon sat engulfed in flames. Witnesses said local gang members torched the car after someone tried to alert authorities.

Officials have postponed the governors’ races in the two northern areas hardest hit by violence that erupted after the presidential election — Kaduna and Bauchi states — until Thursday. But that might be enough time for the thousands who fled those areas to return home and vote.

An estimated 40,000 people left amid postelection violence and retaliatory attacks following the April 16 presidential election, and it’s not clear how many have returned.

In Nigeria’s northeast, an explosion at a hotel killed three people and wounded 14 others in the city of Maiduguri on Sunday, police said. While no one claimed responsibility for that attack, a radical Muslim sect recently vowed to keep fighting there. Another blast went off early Tuesday in the city but no casualties were reported. Still, turnout in some areas dropped by more than 50 percent compared to the elections held earlier this month.

Tensions also remained high in Plateau state, where hundreds have been killed in recent religious violence. On Tuesday, dozens of young men pushed and shoved at a polling station where the visiting election official did not speak the local Hausa language.

“You see, in this country, democracy is premature,” said Abdullah Fanap, 68, who voted in the village of Yelwa. “Here in the north, we have a long way to go.”

Source: Vanguard

Asaba – Mr Adisa Bolanta, the Commissioner of Police in Delta, on Monday said the command would treat any political thugs caught as armed robbers.

Bolanta gave the warning in Asaba, while briefing newsmen on the preparations being made by the command to provide adequate security for Tuesday’s elections.

He said the combined team of the police, army, navy and air force had been mobilised to provide adequate security, especially in identified flash points across the state.

Bolanta called on all legible voters to come out and perform their civic responsibilities without fear or favour.

He also assured the people that enough men and materials had been deployed across the state to ensure hitch-free elections.

Bolanta said the police had received information that some people were planning to cause chaos while camouflaging in different security outfits to manipulate the elections.

“The order on total restriction of mechanical movement is still on. Let me warn that political aids must not accompany their bosses with arms to the polling units.

“Only recognised and accredited party agents will be allowed at the collation centres,’’ he said.

“I want to also warn that anybody caught involved in any act of thuggery, and or with arms during the elections will be treated as an armed robber,’’ Bolanta added.

He called on parents and guardians to be on the lookout and ensure that their wards were not used by politicians as thugs to cause violence during the elections. (NAN)

Source: Vanguard

GOVERNORS are more powerful than most people realise. There are 36 of them and the President makes a point of kowtowing to them on most matters.

If he does not, he would have more troubles than he could anticipate.

Nigeria will not change without the governors changing their attitude to governance and the way they treat the people.

Most of the complaints about governance are about how governors are competing among themselves to be the richest, most powerful and most influential people in Nigeria, without a thought on how these will affect their people, the same people they swear to protect without fear or favour.

As Nigerians queue up today to elect their governors in most states of the country, they have a dual responsibility of electing those who watch over the activities of governors.

We have complained about the governors. We have talked about the irresponsibility of some who have billions of Naira as security votes while they govern states with the worst security situations imaginable.

How do the people feel when they and their children see the bleak future that the governors post before them?
We are inundated with complaints about legislators who are in league with their governors as they despoil their states. The people also have a chance to decide on those legislators today.

There are too many disappointments. The politicians have prospered, the people have been pulverised by policies that have resulted in more poverty, more illnesses, less education and a dying trust in any belief that politicians — this set of politicians — have any interest in the welfare of other Nigerians.

It is up to Nigerians to elect those who will fulfil their dreams. The decisions have to be made wisely, courageously and without doubts about the consequences of the actions. If they think that continuity means the continuation of regimes that took the people for granted, then continuity has no value.

Do we need governors who abhor education? How do they show it? They ignore their shut universities, they do nothing about the poor state of educatuon which has seen less than 35 per cent of students passing their WAEC and NECO examinations.

When a governor claims to be trusted, should we not ask him in what ways? Let the people not be deceived. The decisions that are made today can help or damage the interest of the people decades from today.

In all parts of the country the demands are the same — Nigerians need governors who are responsible enough that the only thing that matters to them is the people who elected them. To ensure this, the legislators must be the guards, who will guide the governors to act on behalf of the people.

We ask Nigerians to be peaceful as they elect their governors and legislators.

Source: Vanguard

LAGOS — As Nigerians go to the polls today for the last phase of the 2011 General elections, to elect the candidates of their choice in the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections, the Presidential Committee on Public Awareness on Security and Civic Responsibilities, has called on all registered Nigerians to go out en masse and exercise their civic responsibility.

In a statement, Chairman of the Committee, Dr Lateef Adegbite, advised the electorate to conduct themselves in an orderly manner, as well as cooperate with all security agencies and election officials for a peaceful, free and fair conduct of the polls.

He also called on security agencies to reciprocate the cooperation of the electorate by being fair and just to all concerned, during the exercise.

The Committee reminded Nigerians that peace and security were essential in nurturing a virile and durable democracy, adding that some major security challenges are capable of subverting the democratic process.

The Presidential Committee on Security Awareness, therefore, assured Nigerians that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration remained irrevocably committed to its constitutional role of securing the lives and property of all Nigerians, and urged all well-meaning citizens to be vigilant and report suspicious characters considered as security risks to the appropriate security agencies.

The Presidential Committee on Public Awareness on Security and Civic Responsibilities was recently inaugurated by the government, to sensitise the public on issues of security and civic responsibilities, as part of government’s determination not to allow the current security challenges degenerate into unmanageable proportions.

Source: Guardian 

SECURITY has been beefed up nationwide to ensure smooth conduct of today’s governorship and House of Assembly polls.

In Delta, the state Police Command has assured residents of the state of what it called “water tight security.”

Spokesman of the command, Charles Muoka, gave the assurance in an interview with The Guardian. He said the state is fully prepared to ensure security in all nooks and crannies, including the riverside areas, saying: “We are on ground and there is no need for the people to panic.”

He said the command has enough personnel to cover the state, adding that it would work with other security agencies to ensure free and fair polls. Muoka spoke following tension in some quarters, especially in Warri and Abraka.

In a related development, fear gripped residents of Edo State yesterday following alleged plans by political thugs to bomb some collation centres in today’s House of Assembly election.

But to forestall such a move, the Edo State Police Commissioner, Ghamdi Orubebe, yesterday, deployed 8,000 combat-ready policemen and their anti-bomb squads to collation centres in areas where trouble may be anticipated. Only the House of Assembly election and the House of Representative elections in Akoko-Edo Local Council will be conducted in the state today.

Also, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the state has raised an alarm alleging plans by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the election in the state.

“The PDP has not only printed fake INEC registration cards bearing pictures and other biometric information of registered voters, it has gone ahead to distribute the said cards in some local government areas in the state, particularly in Edo Central senatorial district,” it said.

However, PDP’s Director of Publicity, Okhikharia Ihimekpen, described the allegation as untrue, saying: “We are aware how the ACN has been intimidating traditional rulers and INEC so as to rig the election”.

Orubebe, who briefed newsmen yesterday, confirmed the deployment of 8,000 mobile policemen and the police anti-bomb squads in strategic areas.

“Patrols will be intensified since our men at polling stations will not be carrying arms. We will ensure that they respond to any distress call. Our anti-bomb squad will be at the collating centres to forestall any anticipated occurrence of explosion,” he said.

In the same vein, security has been beefed up across the major towns of Benue State to prevent outbreak of violence as major political stakeholders accused each other of stockpiling arms.

Armed soldiers driving in hired commercial buses patrolled the major streets of Makurdi, Gboko, Otukpo and Katsina Ala, in a show of force trying to reassure residents that the security situation in the state would not degenerate.

Also, armed mobile policemen supported by armoured personnel carriers patrolled the streets of Makurdi and Gboko, with the policemen chanting morale-boosting songs.

At the Benue State Police Headquarters, thousands of policemen gathered for deployment to their respective beats across the state to help provide security for the election.

Benue State Police Commissioner, Sani Magaji said the police would work with other security agencies to ensure that the elections are conducted peacefully.

Meanwhile, voter turn-out may be low in Abia State following fears that kidnappers will be on the prowl and speculations that some politicians have perfected plans to rig the polls.

Many residents of Umuahia said they would participate if security is guaranteed. But the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Austin Okojie, speaking through his aide, told The Guardian yesterday that given the arrangements made so far, more voters would turn out than in the previous ones. “No complaint of any sort has come to us so far,” he said.

Okojie said all materials for the polls have been dispatched to the 17 local councils and their collection centres while the sensitive materials, including result sheets, were being dispatched yesterday in the presence of party agents and security personnel for transparency.

But following last week’s alleged kidnapping of a lawyer and religious leader in the state, speculation was rife yesterday that it was masterminded by a political party.

Source: Guardian

THE  Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will today hold governorship elections in 26 of the 36 states of the federation.

The first time INEC conducted governorship polls in a single state was in 2010 when Mr. Peter Obi of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) won the Anambra State governorship race.

In today’s rescheduled governorship polls,  the electoral umpire will only conduct the exercise in 26 of the 36 states.

Of the 10 states where elections will not hold, five of them have their polls shifted to 2012 by the court, which ruled that their governors have one more year to stay in office.

The affected governors are Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Kogi’s Ibrahim Idris and Magatakarda Wammako of Sokoto State. The Appeal Court in Abuja had upheld the verdict of a lower court, which ruled in favour of the five PDP governors that by virtue of their second oath in office after winning the re-run polls, they are to leave office in 2012 at different dates.

Also, elections will not hold in Edo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun states because their governors took their oath after the 2007 polls after they won protracted legal battles at the appellate court.

And after the post-election violence in some northern states after the presidential polls of April 16, INEC postponed the governorship polls in Kaduna and Bauchi states to Thursday, April 28, 2011.

Today’s election will however hold in all the 36 states for the Houses of Assembly, where potential and old lawmakers are contesting the polls.

In the states where the polls will hold today, the PDP has 26 incumbent governors but not all of them will feature in the election. Two PDP governors — Bukola Saraki (Kwara) and Gbenga Daniel (Ogun) have completed their second term and will not seek re-election.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has four governors but only one, Lagos State’s Babatunde Fashola will participate in the exercise.

In the three states controlled by the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) — Borno, Kano and Yobe — only the Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Geidam will feature in the election.

Kano State Governor and the ANPP presidential candidate, Ibrahim Shekarau, like his Borno State counterpart, Ali Modu Sheriff are completing their second term.

The PDP incumbents seeking re-election are Danjuma Goje (Gombe), Danbaba Suntai (Taraba), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Akwe Doma (Nasarawa), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Jonah Jang (Plateau), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Patrick Yakowa (Kaduna), who succeeded Vice President Namadi Sambo after he was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan upon the death of his superior, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua; Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Seidu Dakingari (Kebbi), Aliyu Shinkafi (Zamfara), Martin Elechi (Ebonyi), Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Ikedi Ohakim (Imo), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Theodore Orji (Abia), and Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo).

In Niger State, some opposition parties have threatened to boycott today’s polls over the non-inclusion of their logos in the ballot papers.

The parties are African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Citizens Popular Party (CPP).

But despite the protest, the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Emmanuel Onucheyo, said INEC would go ahead with the polls, saying it would use the re-run ballot papers for the exercise.

It was learnt that INEC discovered the errors last Sunday, when it was about to distribute sensitive materials to the 25 local councils and the affected parties immediately raised alarm but the REC said it was too late.

The state Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Malam Umaru Shuaibu, has also kicked against the use of the re-run ballot papers for the election. He said the re-run ballot papers were already in circulation.

According to him, INEC has no excuse because “before now, parties have identified these problems and notified INEC. We are not going to accept the use of the re-run ballot papers for Tuesday’s election.”

The state ANPP Chairman, Aminat Mohammed, described as deliberate the action of INEC to omit the logos of the two parties, adding that the use of re-run ballot papers with logos of over 60 parties would be cumbersome for voters in the rural areas, who are mostly illiterates.

The ACN has also kicked against conducting the election with the re-run ballot papers.  Mr. Bello Aminu, the party’s representative at a meeting held by the stakeholders, said: “ACN says no to the use of ballot papers meant for re-run. This is the beginning of rigging and we are against it.”

But the REC said: “When we discovered the omission we contacted the headquarters and we were advised that because of the time, we should use the ballot papers for the re-run for the governorship election on Tuesday. The commission intends to run the election with an all inclusive logo of all the political parties on Tuesday and that is final.”