The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reported that a staff member has been abducted in the Sagbama LGA of Bayelsa state. It has also noted that a boat mishap resulted in the loss of INEC result sheets.

In a statement released on Friday, Wilfred Ifogah, the state’s INEC voter registration chief, said that the electoral worker had been kidnapped while she was waiting to board a boat at the jetty.

He added that result sheets were misplaced as a result of the overturning of a boat carrying election workers and supplies to the southern Ijaw LGA.

“We wish to confirm that a boat carrying election personnel to registration area 17 (Koluama) in southern Ijaw LGA capsized,” the official stated.

Thankfully, all 12 election workers and the boat operator were saved, meaning that no lives were lost. We did, however, misplace our result sheets, power banks, and staff personal effects-containing bags.

In the impacted registration regions, 5,368 voters are registered to vote, and 5,311 PVCs have been gathered. INEC is putting a lot of effort into making sure that the impacted areas have elections.

Furthermore, INEC has reported that, while at Amassoma Jetty waiting to board, the SPO assigned to registration area 06 (Ossioma) in Sagbama LGA was abducted.

“The security agencies have been notified”, the INEC official pointed out in the statement.

Before today’s governorship election in the state, hundreds of women surrounded the offices of the Bayelsa State Police Command, demanding that the Commissioner of Police, CP, Tolani Alausa, be redeployed.

Protesters, most of whom were clad in black, also urged President Bola Tinubu and Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun to guarantee a peaceful election in the state.

The ladies brandished signs with messages such as ‘IG- The Police must be impartial’, ‘Change CP Alausa for a violence-free poll’, ‘We say No to CP Alausa’, and ‘Give us another CP, we don’t want Tolani Alausa’.