ANDREW UTULU; JOY ANIG­BOGU; VICTORIA OJUGBANA; SEYI TAIWO-OGUNTUASE; PATIENCE OGBODO-IWUAG­WU; SAMSON NWAFOR; FRANCIS ONOIRIBHOLO; CHUKWUJEKWU ILOZUE ; RAYMOND OZOJI ; IGONIKO ODUMA; TOR VANDE-ACKA; INNOCENT OWEH

LAGOS / ENUGU / ABAKALIKI / BENIN / AWKA / YENAGOA / MAKURDI / ABUJA  – The Governorship and State Assembly elections conducted on Saturday saw the rise of vi­olence and the inability of the police to shield victims from political thugs.

It was a reign of terror in places like Lagos, Enugu, Kano states where there were remarkable acts of intimidation of, and attacks, on voters while apathy ruined the exercise in Anambra, Rivers, Edo, and other states.

However, reports claim that there were improvements in distribution and arrival materials at polling units, which was an improvement on the February 25 outing by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In Lagos, thugs popularly known as area boys prevented many non-indi­genes from casting votes for fear they would vote against the ruling party.

Investigations revealed that thugs carrying dangerous weapons such as guns, cutlasses, bottles, daggers and horsewhips stormed several wards and units, forcing voters, particularly non-in­digenes, to vacate the scenes.

Many people were beaten up and wounded, while others went back home without casting their votes due to fear of being attacked

It was gathered that in some units, there were no security operatives to pro­tect voters and INEC officials.

It was further revealed that even in some units where there were operatives, it was either one or two policemen or women without arms.

Moreover, the phone lines provided for emergency calls to invite military and other security operatives were not functioning as calls put across to them for urgent response did not go through.

It was alleged, for instance, that as early as 9am, touts stormed Ward 018 in Jakande Estate, Isolo, and chased out some voters.

Also, at the Unit behind Century Ho­tel in Ago Palace Way, thugs prevented some voters from being accredited.

At Apapa area of the State, there were reports of sporadic shooting by thugs.

However, following the attempted dis­ruption of voting exercise at Mba and Tolu axis of Ajegunle, soldiers were said to have been mobilized and stationed at Tolu bus stop at about 9.10am.

Also in Ibeju Lekki in Lagos, thugs were said to have flogged voters suspect­ed to be non-indigenes.

Thugs were said to have beaten up voters at Unit 037 in Aguda, Suru-Lere, with horsewhips and chased them away, while on Muyibi Street in Olodi-Apapa, thugs were said to have chased voters away, broken ballot boxes and emptied their contents into the gutter.

Meanwhile, INEC has postponed the elections in 10 polling units in the Victo­ria Garden City (VGC) around the Lekki area of the Lagos State.

INEC Resident Electoral Commis­sioner, Segun Agbaje, made the an­nouncement when he addressed report­ers at the VGC.

According to him, corps members de­ployed as ad hoc staff on Saturday were hesitant to enter the VGC Estate as they alleged that they were held hostage in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Agbaje said the commission’s ad hoc staff set up voting materials in front of the estate on Saturday but the estate residents claimed that hoodlums might disrupt the process, so they did not feel secure and could not cast their votes.

He said the situation was difficult for security agents to contain hence he and his team had to come to the area.

“We have eight polling units here with 6,024 registered voters and out of which 5,624 people have their PVCs,” he stated, adding that two other polling units at the estate’s main gate were also affected. “Eight here (in the estate) and two outside,” he noted.

“After due consultation and further directive from the national headquarters that we should remobilise here tomor­row (Sunday) morning by 08:30am to conduct the elections.

“By 08:30am tomorrow (Sunday), we will reconvene here.”

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Prof Benard Odoh has alleged that politi­cal thugs in military and police uniforms unleashed mayhem and disrupted elec­tions in his Ezza North local government area of Ebonyi State.

Odoh disclosed that three persons were shot by the political thugs.

Odoh, who spoke to newsmen in Abakaliki, said: “I have raised a great concern about what is happening in the ongoing governorship and state house of Assembly elections in Ebonyi state.

“In my local government, APC has deployed a massive number of thugs, armed men wearing fake army uniform and of police uniforms. They have been on rampage since morning. They have been moving from one polling Units to another.

“In my ward, at Omege, they came and shot three (3) persons though not dead. They took all the electoral mate­rials that INEC came with. At another ward in Nsurakpa ward, as I speak with you now, they are on rampage.

“They came there and snatch the INEC electoral materials and set them ablaze, and all kind of mayhem are go­ing on in Ezza North LGA. This is the situation we are witnessing, I have been in touch with INEC officials.”

In Edo State, hell was let loose at Eresoyen Primary School Uhogua- Ig­uoshodin community, Ovia North East Local Government Area, when gunmen stormed the voting center located at the primary school taking away the three BVAS machine and other voting mate­rials.

INEC Officials were said to have ar­rived at the Polling Unit with materials at about 7:30 am and accreditation and voting commenced simultaneously at exactly 8:30 am.

The gunmen numbering three were said to have alighted from their vehicle and started shooting sporadically into the air and snatching the BVAS ma­chine and other voting materials from the INEC officers in both units and left in their car.

A voter in the community, Joseph Simon, lamented that there was no se­curity agents around, noting that though there were enough INEC officers on the ground, the BVAS machine allocated to Unit 17 were not enough to take the crowd in the unit.

Political thugs who invaded polling unit 10 at Ogboji ward, Ezza North LGA of Ebonyi State, succeeded in killing a PDP ward chairman, Peter Nweke.

A brother to the deceased and Chairman of Human Rights Defenders (HURIDE) Ebonyi State, Sampson Oko Nweke, who posted the report in his ver­ified Facebook handle, said the political thugs stormed the polling unit with AK- 47 riffles.

He said: “Armed political thugs with AK-47 riffles invaded my pooling unit @ booth 10, Ogboji ward, Ezza North LGA Ebonyi State. They came in two Carter motorcycles. One of them surrendered me with AK-47 at a very close range while others thugs pursued other peo­ple in the bush.

“How I managed to find myself out­side the polling centre remains myste­rious to me. I was almost a dead person today.

“They beat my brother, Mr Nweke Peter JP to coma. He is being rushed to hospital, according to reports from those still around there.

“The hoodlums were also said to have set ablaze all the electoral materials in the three booths in Ndiagu Ogboji,booths 009, 010 and 011.”

The Nigeria Security and Civil De­fence Corps (NSCDC) confirmed the arrest of scores of suspected political thugs in the Nsukka axis of Enugu State.

This was disclosed by the public re­lations officer of the NSCDC in Enugu State, CSC Danny Iwuchukwu, while speaking with journalists

According to him, the scores of sus­pected thugs arrested had been duly handed over to the Nigeria Police within the Nsukka axis.

Iwuchukwu said that the arrest was made early in the morning of March 18, the Election Day, after an intelligence tip-off at a popular hotel in Nsukka.

It was reported that the Nigerian Army arrested 140 suspected political thugs by the Nigerian Army.

AK47 rifles and other dangerous weapons, including hand axes, clubs, and machetes, were recovered from them.

The Commissioner of Police in charge of the 2023 House of Assembly Elections in Anambra State, CP Ader­emi Adeoye, also told journalists that five thugs, allegedly having links with the Ihiala Local Government were arrested with pump action guns.

An 18-seater bus parked in the Parish House of St Francis Catholic Church, Irunebo village, Enugwu-Ukwu in Njiko­ka Local Council Area of Anambra State was on Saturday morning set ablaze in a suspected election-related arson.

The bus belonged to Catholic Women Organization (CWO) and was parked at the Parish House where the parish priest lives for safety.

The arsonists in addition attempted to burn a giant electricity generating set used by the Parish.

The Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri, yesterday condemned the destruc­tion of ballot materials in four wards of Constituency 2 in the Ogbia Local Gov­ernment Area of the state by suspected party thugs in alleged compromise with some armed security men during the House of Assembly election.

The voting materials meant for Ogbia wards 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the House of Assem­bly election in the state were carted away by the armed men and hoodlums in the early hours of Saturday.

The materials were also said to have been burnt.

Diri in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, described the act as highly condemnable and warned those behind any form of electoral vi­olence in the state to desist forthwith as the full weight of the law would be brought down on the culprits.

In a rather curious turn, soldiers allegedly belonging to the 401 Brigade, Makurdi, were reported to have, in the wee hours of Saturday, beat up Hon. Kpam Sopko, the House of Representa­tives (HoR) member for Buruku Federal Constituency of Benue State to a pulp.

According to the HoR member, who spoke with newsmen on phone, one of the soldiers among those that assaulted him also threatened to kill him.

The soldiers that numbered over 30 came in two armoured vehicles and a truck to Old Barn Hotel, Gboko, belong­ing to Mike Aondoakaa, the former At­torney General and Minister of Justice, where they assaulted the lawmaker.

However, the spokesman for the group, Captain Okezie, said he was not aware of the incident but promised to ascertain the report and get back to us.

Meanwhile, an independent election monitoring group, under the auspices of Yiaga Africa, on Saturday, narrated how it uncovered 54 critical incidents which characterised the governorship polls in at least 25 states of the federation.

The Group which deployed several mobile and stationary observers across 28 states where elections took place, indentified some of those incidents to include open intimidation and harass­ment of voters, disruption of voting and destruction of election materials among other vices.

Ezenwa Nwagwu, Board Member, Yiaga Africa, who reeled out some of their mid- day report and findings, in Abuja, said across the other 25 states that it deployed 550 observers, it received re­ports about the opening and commence­ment of polls, some of which were quite impressive when compared to the Presi­dential and National Assembly elections which held on February 25.

Nwagwu said the common trends ob­served was that INEC polling officials arrived at 7:30 am in 276 of the polling units visited. While accreditation and voting begun by 9:30 am in 400 of the polling units visited.

Regarding the deployment of the BVAS, it observed the deployment of two or more BVAS devices in a certain number of polling units. But in cer­tain isolated cases of the polling units observed, the BVAS was not shown to be zero records for the total number of accredited voters on it before the com­mencement of the process.

Commenting on the critical inci­dents observed, the group said as at 1:00 pm, the Yiaga Africa WTV Data Center received 54 verified critical incident reports primarily concerning the in­timidation and harassment of voters, disruption of voting and destruction of election materials.