Voters Were A Disappointment In Bayelsa Off-Cycle Election – Nengi James

Eminent Niger Delta activist and leader of Ijaw ethnic nationality, Alabo Nengi James, has condemned the way voters in the last Off-Cycle Governorship Election in Bayelsa State sold their votes in the election.
Alabo James, who spoke to National Point while monitoring the election in Yenagoa, the state capital, said he was thoroughly disappointed with the voters, who used their votes as bargaining chips in the election.
“For the voters, I think I am so disappointed. I see a lot of vote buying, especially in areas that I have been to in the state capital. It has never be so visible and canvassed,” Nengi, who is the Vice-president of Ijaw National Congress, said.
He said the vote buying happened under the nose of security agents who did nothing about it. “Maybe, they were going to collect their own,” he said.
James said from what he saw, the outcome of the election cannot be said to be the reflection of the conscience of the people.
“It is not the conscience of the people. No! We have tried, CSOs have tried. INEC has tried to sensitise the people. But the feelings I get from them is that, ‘this is their time. There is hunger; man must wack’. So, they should have their transportation money.”
The Ijaw leader also lamented the violence that characterised the elections, especially the abduction of a senior presiding officer at Sagbama, the bloodletting in Brass and Southern Ijaw and the capsizing of a boat ferrying polling officers and the road accident involving police officers in Yenagoa.
But he commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for improving on the conduct of the election and for the effectiveness of the Bi-Modal Accreditation System (BVAS). He also commended the peaceful way voters conducted themselves during the election and the security agents for the peace that reigned in Yenagoa.