An alleged attack on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Collation Center of the Ogoja State Constituency in Cross Rivers State was carried out by suspected political thugs of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In addition to beating numerous collation officers at the center, the thugs also vandalized voting equipment and louvres and took phones from bystanders.
Peter Kolo, the Ogoja Local Government Area’s electoral officer, confirmed the incident and said that the criminals broke through all security measures to obstruct collation with the intention of destroying election results.
As I speak to you, all of the BIVAS results and results that were uploaded to the portal have been recovered, and we will soon resume announcing results from the three remaining wards.
Dr. Timothy Ellah of the University of Calabar, who is also the Ogoja State Constituency Collation Officer, claimed that he was severely beaten by thugs who took some result sheets away while suffering only minor injuries.
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But we have all the results back, and we’re prepared to start announcing the results again,” he said.
APC agents decided to raise the alarm and invite their supporters to invade the Collation center after the results from Nkum Irede were announced. This was according to an eyewitness who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune.
According to the source, PDP won seven out of the ten political wards in the Ogoja Local Government Area, including the Nkum Irede Ward.
The Cross River State Police Command PRO, Irene Ugbo noted that many of the suspected thugs have been arrested and are currently being profiled to determine the level of each arrestee’s involvement in the attack, despite the Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) Professor Gabriel Yomere’s assurance of the presence of soldiers.
