By Diana Omueza
The Cleen Foundation, an NGO, has lauded the conduct of the Nigeria Police and other law enforcement agencies during the general election held on Saturday.
The elrection was held to elect the President and Vice President and members of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Mr Peter Gad, Executive Director of the foundation gave the commendation while addressing newsmen on the foundation’s preliminary report on the conduct of security agencies in the elections.
Gad also urged the electorate to remain peaceful to the end of the entire electoral process.
He said from reports so far received from the foundation’s observers in senatorial districts across the country, the elections appeared to have gone according to the standards for democratic elections to which Nigeria had committed itself.
“We deployed roving observers in the 109 Senatorial Districts and our preliminary reports indicates that, inspite some reported delays, the elections appear to be going on according to the standards for democratic elections.
“The 109 trained INEC accredited observers liaised with a sizable number of citizen observers across the country covering the 109 senatorial zones in Nigeria.
“They reported that the elections commenced early in most polling units before 9:00 am, however in Kogi, Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu, and Abia States observers reported delays due to late arrival of INEC staff and voting materials.
“While in Delta, Ebonyi, Imo, Ondo, and some part of Lagos State, late arrival of security personnel were reported in some polling units,” he said.
Gad said that in spite of the late arrivals of security, data gathered showed that over 80 per cent of the polling units had at least two or more security agents.
He added that almost all the polling units observed security agents were wearing easily visible and identifiable name tags and they were civil and approachable.
According to him, observers across the states reported that they felt safe and secure at the polling units.
“Our observers reported that security personnel in the polling units visited acted professionally and impartially towards the voters.
“The security personnel were of good conduct at the various polling units,” he said.
The director said that most of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned reasonably well, except in few cases where the machines for different polling units were mixed up.
“The BVAS machine that was meant for a different unit was deployed to Polling Unit 004, Ward Dan Mangu Zodu, in Bassa LGA in Plateau State.
“Again our observer in Polling Unit 012, llesha Ward, Baruten LGA in Kwara State reported that the BVAS thumbprint failed to capture any registered voter as at 10:50 am.
“However, in all, the elections appear to have gone according to the standards for democratic elections to which Nigeria had committed itself,” he said.
Gad said that the group was still compiling reports from across various polling units and would disseminate a more elaborate post election report to the public in due time. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Sadiya Hamza
