‘Militants hijacked election materials in Cross River’

RESULTS in more than eight units of Akpabuyo Local Council of Cross River State in last Saturday Governorship and House of Assembly elections have been cancelled, as militants hijacked materials.

The Akpabuyo Council Collation Officer, Prof. Austin Obiesekie, who disclosed this yesterday while announcing the result from the area at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Calabar, said this resulted in the cancellation of elections in most polling units. 
 
According to him, there were discrepancies in about eight polling units in the local government including cases of over voting.

He said in several polling units, the number of votes recorded exceeded the number of registered voters, while materials could not be transported to most communities in the local government due to bad terrain.
 
Following this, he said results of the incident, elections in the affected polling units had to be cancelled.
 
In Bekwarra and Calabar South local council as well as Calabar Municipality, there were also reports of discrepancies in the collated results.
 
However, unlike the previous elections, cases of ballot box stuffing or interference by government were almost non-existent but unknown thugs suspected to be loyal to some of the political parties caused trouble in a few places.
 
In Mkpani, Yakurr council two persons were shot and was reported dead as they tried to hijack electoral materials.