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Rivers poll: APC witnesses say thugs hijack electoral materials

By NAN
07 September 2015   |   4:44 pm
APC witnesses at the Rivers National Assembly and State Legislative Elections Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Monday alleged that suspected thugs obstructed the Kware/Emohua senatorial district election and hijacked electoral materials. The suit was filed by Mr Wihoka Chidi of APC against Sen. Boniface Sunday of PDP, the winner of the election. Justice A.M Pindiga,…

NIGERIA-VOTEAPC witnesses at the Rivers National Assembly and State Legislative Elections Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Monday alleged that suspected thugs obstructed the Kware/Emohua senatorial district election and hijacked electoral materials.

The suit was filed by Mr Wihoka Chidi of APC against Sen. Boniface Sunday of PDP, the winner of the election.

Justice A.M Pindiga, the tribunal Chairman, at the resumed hearing, heard the eight witnesses presented by Mr B.E.I. Nwafor (SAN), counsel to the petitioner, and adjourned the case to Sept. 8 for continuation.

The eight witnesses are Lawal Kadri, Stephen Okparacha, Gabriel Eze, Stephen Dona, Samuel Kinika, Chinedu Omaduru, Vivian Asoa and Aderoju Bimpe.

The witnesses affirmed on oath that suspected thugs obstructed the election and hijacked the materials meant to be used in conducting the election.

According to the witnesses, they had submitted a written complaint to the police station and INEC office in the area.

Gabriel Eze, who served as party agent in ward 4, said that thugs came to their ward and collected all the electoral materials for the senatorial election in the constituency.

Eze said that the electorate protested when they discovered that the result sheet for the election was not available.

Another witness, Chinedu Omaduru who served as presiding officer in ward 4, unit 6, also confirmed the incident but added that INEC supplied him all the electoral materials, excluding result sheets.

Omaduru said that it was not long when the accreditation began before some suspected thugs hijacked all the materials.

Samuel Kinika, a party agent in ward 3, said that he went to the collation centre to inform INEC of the non availability of electoral materials in their ward.

According to him, he saw some party members and suspected thugs, accompanied by security personnel, packing the materials into their cars.

He said that the security personnel used tear gas to scare the electorate away while the suspected thugs went away with all the materials.

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