Some youth of Bayelsa state on
Wednesday disrupted a meeting with officials of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yenagoa, the state capital.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman,
who was presiding over the meeting, was forced to end the session after
unsuccessfully trying to calm the restive youth.
Abdulmajid Ali, the deputy
inspector-general of police (DIG) in charge of operations, who was present at
the meeting, also left with the policemen on the ground.
Trouble started when Francis
Dakpola, one of the politicians present, raised an alarm that some villagers
have been forced to leave their communities over violence.
The former governorship aspirant
said some citizens in the affected communities, including Peremabiri were
displaced following violence in the last general election.
He said the residents are yet to
return to their homes and expressed concerns over the likely outbreak of
violence in the governorship poll.
His comments angered some of the
those present, mostly the youth, who immediately came forward and asked him to
withdraw his comments.
This resulted in chaos with the
youth saying Dakpola has no business with the happenings in the locations he
cited because he is not from the area.
One of them who declined to give
his name told TheCable: “What is his business with where he is not from? They
will come and meet us. We shall see.”
While officials of the commission
and other security officials left, some of the youth who stayed back continued
to threaten one another amid growing tension.
The event was the second in a
series of meetings INEC is holding with stakeholders in the state to seek ways
of conducting a free, fair and credible governorship election on November 16.
Among those in attendance were
governorship candidates, civil society organisations (CSOs) and security
agencies.
With the election just one month
away, the disruption is the latest in an array of events in the state raising
doubts on the possibility of a hitch-free poll.
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