Collation of results is ongoing at the different Local  Government Areas across Edo state in the governorship election that held on Wednesday.

The exercise is said to have been largely peaceful, though cases of ballot box snatching and other pockets of violence have been reported at some polling stations.

Over 1.9 million people were registered to vote in the poll, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has over 18,511 officials on election duty across the state.

Edo State has 192 registration areas 2,627 polling units and 4,011 voting points.

Earlier in the day, INEC’s National Commissioner, Amina Zakari, told journalists that the electoral process was going on as expected while the INEC officials and security agents were working professionally.

“It (the electoral process) has gone based on our expectation.

“The ad-hoc staff are working professionally (and) the security agents are doing their work (while) the people of Edo State are actually doing what we expect of them.

“They are behaving adequately, they are lined up neatly and everything is going smoothly,” she said.

However, series of tweets by ‘The Situation room’, a coalition of civil society groups, indicate that there were violence in many polling units across Edo state.

And in some others, the INEC’s smart card readers malfunctioned and officials had to resort to manual accreditation.

One of the tweets read: “@inecnigeria resorts to manual accreditation due to card reader failure; over 100 people yet to vote @ unit 4, ward 8, Igueben LG #EdoDecides.”

Another read: “Hoodlums destroy ballot box in PU12/12/01/027, Uyiosa Pry Sch, Oredo LG @inecnigeria @PoliceNG #EdoDecides”.

According to the situation room, there were polling units where elections did not hold as INEC officials did not show up.

“No elections in all PUs in Ologbo Ward of Ikpoba/Okha LG. No @inecnigeria official came to the Ward,” the group posted.

Also, the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Osaro Onaiwu, called for total cancellation of the exercise.

He claimed that there were cases of financial inducement and intimidation of Party loyalists.

Meanwhile, as the collation process continues, INEC has urged Nigerians not to take seriously any result posted on the social media by people it described as miscreants and trouble makers.