Suspected army officers snatch results in Rivers, Benue States

Suspected army officers snatched result sheets at a collation centre in Buguma in Rivers State.

It was gathered in Port Harcourt that in most of the local government areas, pressure was been mounted on election officers to endorse doctored results, which a lot of them declined.

But to avoid the pressure and douse the tension, some of the election officers have since returned to INEC office in Port Harcourt.

At the Obio-Akpor collation centre for instance, thugs stormed the venue shortly after the results had been collated and proceded to snatch them from the Registration Area Centre officers, who resisted and prevented them from tearing the result sheets.

A source told The Guardian that security operatives at the centre quickly dragged the officer in charge into a waiting van and brought her to the INEC headquarters where she submited the results.

It was also gathered that results for presidential election from Okrika Local Government was missing as at press time.

In a related development, Benue state Governor, Samuel Ortom yesterday alleged that some army personnel invaded collation centre at Gboko in Gboko Local Government Area, where results were being collated and took them away to an unknown destination.

Ortom, who disclosed this, while speaking with newsmen at INEC’s headquarters in Makurdi, explained that he was in INEC with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains to report the incident to the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

Meanwhile, kidnappers have abducted an INEC’s ad-hoc staff in Saturday’s elections at Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State.

Electoral Officer in the area, Sabiu Abdulkadir, who spoke on the incident yesterday, said the bandits picked the ad-hoc staff (names withheld) on his way to his duty post at Runka Ward B in the area.

Abdulkadir said: “There were three other INEC staff in their vehicle but the kidnappers isolated the victim and abducted him and fled into the bush. They did not touch any of the electoral materials they were carrying when the incident happened. The kidnappers have not made any contacts with us.”