Less than ten hours to the commencement of governorship elections in Bayelsa State, a Senior Polling Officer(SPO) has been abducted with materials in the state.
In the same vein, a boat carrying 12 officials with voting materials was reported to have capsized on its way to Southern Ijaw area of the state.
In a statement signed by the HOD Voter Education and Publicity of Bayelsa INEC office, Wilfred Ifogah, the SPO assigned to Registration Area -06 (Ossioma) in Sagbama Local Government Area was abducted while waiting to board a boat at Amassoma Jetty. The security agents have been alerted.
Ifogah also confirms that the boat carrying Election Personnel to Registration Area-17(Koulama) in Southern Ijaw LGA capsized. The 12 personnel and boat operators were rescued while the materials which included result sheets, batteries, power banks and luggage containing personal effects of staff were lost.
The statement added: “The total number of registered voters in the affected Registration Area is 5368 and the number of PVCs collected is 5311. INEC is making efforts to ensure the conduct of elections in the affected area”.
