Tension as youth disrupt INEC meeting on Bayelsa guber poll

Some youth of Bayelsa state on Wednesday disrupted a meeting with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yenagoa, the state capital.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, who was presiding over the meeting, was forced to end the session after unsuccessfully trying to calm the restive youth.

Abdulmajid Ali, the deputy inspector-general of police (DIG) in charge of operations, who was present at the meeting, also left with the policemen on the ground.

Trouble started when Francis Dakpola, one of the politicians present, raised an alarm that some villagers have been forced to leave their communities over violence.

The former governorship aspirant said some citizens in the affected communities, including Peremabiri were displaced following violence in the last general election.

He said the residents are yet to return to their homes and expressed concerns over the likely outbreak of violence in the governorship poll.

His comments angered some of the those present, mostly the youth, who immediately came forward and asked him to withdraw his comments.

This resulted in chaos with the youth saying Dakpola has no business with the happenings in the locations he cited because he is not from the area.

One of them who declined to give his name told TheCable: “What is his business with where he is not from? They will come and meet us. We shall see.”

While officials of the commission and other security officials left, some of the youth who stayed back continued to threaten one another amid growing tension.

The event was the second in a series of meetings INEC is holding with stakeholders in the state to seek ways of conducting a free, fair and credible governorship election on November 16.

Among those in attendance were governorship candidates, civil society organisations (CSOs) and security agencies.

With the election just one month away, the disruption is the latest in an array of events in the state raising doubts on the possibility of a hitch-free poll.