Kogi State’s electoral commission and visiting election observers have described the just concluded local government elections as peaceful in the areas they visited.
This claim was made citing voter turnout and security arrangements while stressing the need for credible vote counting.
The Chairman of the Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission (KOSIEC), Mamman Nda-Eri, said “the commission was committed to ensuring that votes were counted and reflected in the final results”. He added that “voters still in queues at the scheduled 3 p.m. closing time would be allowed to vote.”
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Nda-Eri said the election followed a 13-point timetable developed over approximately 360 days and attributed the turnout partly to voter education and engagement with political parties. He also dismissed allegations circulating on social media about the process, attributing some to parties that were not participating in the election.
Meanwhile, Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission Chairman Joseph Aremu, who led a delegation from the Forum of State Independent Electoral Commissions of Nigeria on a peer-review visit, said the team was assessing compliance with electoral laws and guidelines. He described voting in the areas visited as orderly and commended the deployment of security personnel.
Aremu said no casualties, shootings, ballot stuffing or vote-buying incidents had been reported in the locations observed. He urged election winners to govern inclusively and called on unsuccessful candidates to accept the outcome peacefully.
In Lokoja, the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmanship candidate, Abdulrahman Hussein, praised the state government’s security arrangements and expressed confidence in his chances of winning.
He identified security, support for small businesses, education, water supply and environmental sanitation as priorities if elected.
While electoral officials and observers reported a calm atmosphere in the polling units they visited, their assessments do not by themselves establish the overall credibility of the election.
The final results and any complaints or reports of irregularities will be important in determining whether voters’ choices were accurately reflected.
