Fejiro Oliver
LAGOS OCTOBER 13TH (URHOBOTODAY)-The Delta Central Senatorial election which took place on Saturday October 12th , 2013 could be described as a show of shame as those suspected to be members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) threw caution and civility into dustbin and exhibited all manner of thuggery coupled with ballot box snatching in order to outwit their opponents in the just concluded election.
From one polling booth to another, from one local government area to another and from one community to another the story is the same. People who stormed the polling booths in the morning in order to cast their votes to their fevourite candidates went home disappointed after waiting for hours without casting their votes. Why? There were no voting materials. It is either the materials were snatched on their way to the polling booths by thugs suspected to members of PDP or they were snatched in front of the electorate by gun tottering thugs with security men ( soldiers and policemen) deployed to secure the materials turning their faces at the other side in pretense. What a shame that in this modern era the people of Delta State could still behave like this.
Information from the field by our reporters stated that as at 8am, there was no arrival of ballot boxes yet in Sapele, Okpe, Ethiope West, Ethiope East, Uvwie and Udu local government areas. The election materials which arrived later from the various Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) located in the local government was shared to all the polling units.
The election went sour in Abraka, Ethiope East as alleged supporters of the PDP went into Ajamogha and began to beat up the assistant resident electoral officers, seized their ballot boxes and tore the voting papers.
Our reporter who spoke to two female electoral officers gathered that they escaped with their lives, while the male among them was chased to a river where he was beaten and pushed into the river. Some of the old women and little children later took to the street, protesting the rigging allegedly executed by the members of PDP. An aged woman who spoke to our reporter in their native language reported that those suspected to be PDP agents pursued them and snatched away the ballot boxes and papers and took them to bush thumb printing.
Another polling booth which is close to the Democratic Peoples Party gubernatorial candidate which was going on peacefully turned to blood bath as cultists allegedly loyal to the PDP invaded the unit, beating up voters before carting away the election materials to thumb print in nearby bushes. The situation in Okpe local government area was not different as PDP supporters allegedly went to several polling booths and snatched ballot boxes.
The election in Sapele we can authoritatively report was marred with fraud and rigging as chieftains of the PDP namely Chief Paulinus Akpeki, Commissioner for Housing and Hon. Monday Igbuya, Member, Delta State House of Assembly gathered their boys to pursue away the supporters of the DPP and APC from all the polling units, while they perfected the rigging in connivance with the Nigerian Army who watched and gave them protection as they thumb printed.
The same thing happened at Ughelli North and South LGA. Voters waited for hours without arrival of voting materials. News later came that the materials have been hijacked by some thugs under gunpoint.
The irony of it all is that while voting exercise were marred in majority of the polling booths as a result of hijacking of voting materials, INEC is declaring bogus result for PDP candidate. One may be force to question the rationale behind the bogus result being declared in favour of the PDP candidate.
We gathered that the decision to rig the election in Sapele, Okpe and Ethiope East we snooped is due to the fact that those are the stronghold of the DPP, who have always voted for the party from 2007 till date. The candidate of the DPP, Chief Ede Dafinone we gathered has already withdrawn from the race, describing it as a charade and fraud. A source close to the businessman told our reporters that they have ordered their agents not to sign any result declared by INEC.