10 injured, 20 vehicles vandalised as violence mars Delta LG poll

Violence was yester­day recorded in some areas during the con­duct of the local government elections across the 25 council areas of Delta State.

Besides, protest broke out in some centres especially in Delta South and Central Sena­torial Districts over alleged disappearance of result sheets from the election materials.

In Koko, Warri North LGA of Delta South, over 10 ten persons were said to have sus­tained injuries, while no fewer than 20 vehicles of various brands were vandalised when fighting broke out.

Trouble was said to have started when a prominent chief allegedly led thugs in their numbers to unleash mayhem on members of the community who had insisted on inspecting election materi­als before being distributed to the various units.

An eyewitness told Sunday Sun that the thugs came with cutlasses which they used in clubbing those who had laid siege at the gate of the police station on the ground that the materials would not be dis­tributed until they were in­spected to make sure that the materials were complete.

According to the source, there was anxiety that the materials might have been tampered with in favour of a particular political party par­ticipating in the exercise.

“As at last night when the materials arrived, we in­spected and everything was complete, but this morning we learnt that the result sheet has been removed. So, we now in­sisted that the materials have to be inspected again before distribution.

“But the police refused to open the gate and that is why the people stood their ground and became restive because they felt that the result would favour a particular political party,” the source said.

A voter in the area, Anunu Esimaje described the election as a sham, saying that he was a victim of the violence.

Esimaje said: “This is no election. They used security to intimidate and molest vot­ers. Even thugs came here to harass and molest our people in the presence of security op­eratives. Now they have taken the materials away.”

But in a swift reaction, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the community, Mike Diden said the election was peaceful despite the initial hiccups. He praised the security agencies for living up to expectation.

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