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•Protests in Ogoni against INEC
From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it would conduct election in seven wards in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State, where it failed to deploy electoral materials and personnel on Saturday.
State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Johnson Sinikiem, announced this yesterday, at the commission’s head office in Port Harcourt.
Speaking on the Bi-Modal Voters Accreditation Machine System (BIVAS), Sinikiem said some of the machines were currently being configured ahead of the exercise.
Meanwhile, four local government areas have arrived the INEC State Collation Centre, with the fourth council (Tai LGA) arriving at about 4:45 pm.
The presidential result from Etche LGA showed that Labour Party (LP) polled a total of 11, 232 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 8,386 and 5,919 votes respectively.
The results were announced by the LGA Collation Officer in Okehi, headquarters of Etche LGA.
Daily Sun gathered that youths in Igwuruta, Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state revolted when the ballot box was hijacked at Unit 5 after results showed that Labour Party was cruising home to victory in the presidential election.
The angry youths, who blocked roads with tyres accused a chieftain of one of the popular political parties of being responsible for the hijack.
However, it was gathered that the chairman of the LGA, Samuel Nwanosike, escaped death by the whiskers, as gunmen riddled his bullet proof Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) with bullets.
Protests also erupted in Ogoni over ongoing efforts of “powerful forces” to allegedly subvert the Saturday election result against the wish of the people.
The protesters, who were mostly women, chanted ‘give us our vote’ , saying that they voted peacefully and massively for their preferred candidates.
They called on INEC and the security agencies not to connive with the two major political parties to manipulate the presidential election.
