TheCable

Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra, says he has always known that the governorship election in the state will be peaceful.

Speaking with journalists after voting in his polling unit at Agulu ward 1, Anaocha LGA, Obi said he preached on several occasions that the election will be peaceful.

Prior to the election, there had been speculations that the process may be marred by violence following the recent attacks in the state.

Obi, however, said there was some delay relating to the late arrival of voting materials and malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in some parts of the state.

“I have been here since morning waiting for this process to commence. It took quite a while for the process to start, but I must say that now that they have started, it went well,” he said.

“But I have been getting calls all over the state. For most communities, it is the issue of non-arrival of all voting materials across the state.

“I got calls that machines are not working and of course, here it was delayed for a long time which shouldn’t be. There should be improvements in all these but you can see that there is no much improvement.

“However, now that they have started, I have voted and I believe that the voter turnout in this particular booth where I have voted and have always voted remains reasonable okay.

“I have always preached on several occasions that the election will be peaceful because I know it is going to be peaceful.

“I don’t know what is happening across the state, but nobody has complained that there was any form of problem. The problem we have is what I have elucidated before — issue of late arrival of materials and the machines not working.”

Earlier, the  Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) extended the voting time in the election to 4pm over the malfunctioning of the BVAS in some polling units.