The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has vowed to bring all culprits of election violence to book.
This was contained in a statement on Sunday.
The statement said that the Saturday, April 11, 2015 Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections held in 29 States of the Federation was successful.
And that the assessment showed that the elections went very well across the country and preliminary reports, showed that 88.9 % of polling units opened for accreditation between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. across the country as against 5.2 % that were yet to open as of 1 pm. Also, 73 % of the polling units commenced voting by 2.30 p.m.
The statement furthered said accreditation with Smart Card Readers was also successful in majority of the polling units as the initial challenges recorded in Edo and Abia states were resolved by the technical teams deployed to support the states.
The statement reviled that ‘many parts of the country remained relatively peaceful during the elections. Some states, however, recorded a significant number of violent incidents, the most affected being Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi and Ondo States.
INEC’s records show that there were 66 reports of violent incidents targeted at polling units, the Commission’s officials, voters and election materials.
These were in Rivers State (16 incidents), Ondo (8), Cross River and Ebonyi (6 each), Akwa Ibom (5) Bayelsa (4), Lagos and Kaduna (3 each), Jigawa, Enugu, Ekiti and Osun (2 each), Katsina, Plateau, Kogi, Abia, Imo, Kano and Ogun (1 each).
The Commission said its is investigating these incidents and will do everything within in its powers to bring culprits to justice.
INEC further commended Nigerians once again for demonstrating their resolve and commitment to participate in the electoral process and by doing so, contributing to deepening democracy in our country.
The Commission called on every citizen to maintain peace as the results of the Governorship and State Assembly elections are being processed, and to accept the official outcomes and on the basis of the requirements prescribed by the legal framework any aggrieved persons or groups were encouraged to seek redress at the Tribunals.
