The Yobe State governor, Hon Mai Mala Buni, has described the turnout of voters during the presidential and the national assembly elections especially at the Boko Haram liberated areas as encouraging and promising.
Buni made his feelings known while speaking to journalists shortly after casting his vote at his hometown in Buni-Gari of Gujba local government area of Yobe State.
The governor stated that as a state picking up from the shackles of the Boko Haram insurgency, the enthusiasm and peaceful behavior of the people of Yobe on the election was astonishing.
He equally commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for commitments as well as the introduction of innovations for the smooth conduct of the exercise across the country.
“I am highly delighted with the process, especially that our people are now voting in their ancestral communities.
“The arrangement and the peaceful nature of the conduct is commendable more especially that the people of this community are one of the communities that were displaced by the carnage of the Boko Haram insurgency or you can say is the epicentre of the Boko Haram but today you can see to yourself people are going about there normal businesses.
“The way people troop out to exercise their civic right is quite encouraging.
“I have to also commend INEC for the new innovation because it has greatly helped in easing accreditation and the entire process,” Buni added.
The governor had in a statement issued by his director general Press Affairs and Media Alhaji Mamman Mohammed charged people of the state to conduct themselves peacefully before, during and after the elections.
He said, “Yobe state has a tradition of peaceful elections, this should be sustained to promote peace in the state.
Buni stated that there is no election that is worth the blood of any citizen, while democracy and good governance can only thrive when there is peace and peaceful coexistence.
According to him, political differences must never cause hate and chaos among the good people of the state “We remain brothers and sisters in spite of our political differences.
“These differences should not be used to divide us, we should therefore play the game peacefully according to the rules” Governor Buni advised.
