The peaceful conduct of elections in Abia state, south-eastern Nigeria, has been attributed to the unity of purpose among electorates in the state.
Abia state is one of the states with no records of electoral violence as citizens came out in large numbers for the Presidential and National Assembly elections at the weekend.
An international election observer in the state, Timothy Ihemadu, who is the head Nigeria mission of the International Organization for Sustainable Development, said that despite the challenges experienced at the start of the elections that the huge turnouts of voters also showed confidence in the electoral process.
Ihemadu said the relative peace experienced made it easier for the security agencies in the state to do their jobs.
He said: “The security was top notch and I can tell you the miscreants went to sleep. It dawned on them that you cannot operate in a place where people are all united to prove a point or have decided to do the needful in order to make sure the system is better, and you are part of that society.
“So one person cannot challenge the whole community, there is a unanimous agreement by the people that this voting is going to take place and anybody who wants to counter it may be running against the entire community, it helped the security,” he continues.
Dr. Ihemadu added that “We barely could see security men on the road or checkpoints even at the polling units apart from the municipal. In the rural are very few people (security personnel) and people were going about their business unmolested.”
