…thugs shot sporadically, injure three voters – Eye witness

... materials are being resent to the polling Unit – Police

By Peter Okutu

Electorate have protested over the alleged burning of Electoral materials such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine and other sensitive materials in Omege ward, Ezza North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

The protesters alleged that the materials that were meant for the polling unit were destroyed by some political thugs, allegedly loyal to the ruling party against their right to vote for their preferred Candidate.

Omege ward is the polling unit of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Gubernatorial candidate in the State, Professor Ifeanyi Bernard Odoh who has faced several attacks before Saturday’s election.

Vanguard investigation revealed that the suspects who came to the polling unit shot sporadically and injured three people who are currently at the hospital and destroyed the BVAS machine.

Mr. Nwafor Benjamin, an APGA Ward Agent for the ward described the situation as unfortunate, stressing that the development has deprived the people of the area their right to Vote.

“What happened here is very unfortunate and it has never happened in Omege ward before, our youths and the civil defense men accompanied the materials from the local government to the polling unit.

“On reaching here, people were waiting for INEC to bring out the materials, unknown to us, some Ebubeagu people came down from a bike with pump action and started shooting and injured three people.

“One of them rushed to where INEC officials kept the materials and brought out sensitive items like the BVAS and register and started shooting to scare people away before burning the BVAS”. he said.

Another witness who spoke on condition of anonymity regretted that with the destruction of the electoral materials, they have been denied their constitutional right to vote.

“We have been here since morning to vote but they have destroyed our materials, all the women are here to vote, we need to vote it is our right“. she added

Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ebonyi State Police Command, SP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, said electoral materials were being resent to the affected Polling Unit as election will still be conducted in there.