Bayelsa Poll: Journalists, observers, security personnel, others face difficulty travelling to creeks

With a few hours to the governorship election in Bayelsa State, there is increasing logistics challenge in the state, particularly in the creeks.

Election observers, journalists, security personnel and others accredited by INEC to report or observe the election are facing huge challenges moving from Yenagoa, the state capital and other mainland towns to the creeks.

Some residents of the mainland have also been travelling in the last couple of days to the creeks where they registered to vote.

On Friday morning, the pier at Nembe waterside was filled with passengers trying to cross to Brass Local Government Area, where the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, hails from.

The local government area, located on Brass Island, is a 50-minute boat ride from the mainland. It has yet to be linked by road with the mainland.

When this reporter arrived at the waterside at 9:23 a.m., most of the passengers, including security agents and observers, were struggling to get a boat to the Island.

Although over 120 passengers were trying to move by boat to Brass as of Friday morning, there were only three boats on ground, and each could take about 10 passengers per time.

Due to the increasing number of passengers, some of the boat operators increased the fare from N5,000 to N6,000. The fare may rise because of the restriction of boat movement from 6 p.m. on Friday.

Monday Fufah, one of the boat operators, justified the increment. He said the operators buy fuel at the black market at the rate of N900 per litre, adding that the price is as high as N1,000 per litre in Brass.

“If you get to Brass, a litre of fuel is about N1,000. We have no choice,” Mr Fufah said.

Despite the increase in the number of passengers crossing to Brass, PREMIUM TIMES observed that most of the boat operators were safety conscious. They did not exceed their capacity and ensured that all their passengers used the life jackets they provided.

This reporter noticed a number of the speed boats that broke down on the water. In some instances, the operators were able to fix them, but in others, passengers were transferred to other boats.

For instance, the boat that was conveying this reporter to Brass also broke down during the trip for about 30 minutes until another one was sent to pick him and the other passengers.