Delta Lga Polls: Dsiec Office Set Ablaze, Pdp Chieftain In Coma In Delta
The Ughelli Collation office belonging to the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) went on fire Saturday following electoral violence that greeted the January 6, 2018 local government elections conducted by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)-led government of Ifeanyi Okowa.
Trouble started at about 8:45am when alleged thugs purportedly hired by a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and chairman of the party in Ughelli north, Jaro Egbo and chairmanship candidate for the election, one Mr Evance allegedly stormed the electoral body office, disrupted the process before allegedly setting the office on fire.
It was gathered that there were sporadic gun shoots which led electorates to scamper for safety as the fierce looking boys allegedly destroyed electoral materials meant for the elections.
A source whom our correspondent contacted on phone said, “As we speak the secretariat has been set ablaze while all on ground are looking for where to hide. Some comrades monitoring the election have run into the bush for hiding”.
Another said: “My brother Ughelli is on fire, but I learnt it is one of the chairmanship candidates that caused it.”
Another one said: “Yes, there is been shootout and tear gas at DSIEC office. But there was no burning of DSIEC office. The police shot into the air to send the boys running.”
In another development, a PDP stalwart in Djese and former PDP chairman in Ethiope West local government council, Felix Eshegbene, was sent to a comatose state after alleged APC thugs who stormed the venue of the election, unleashed terror on electorates among others.
Chairmanship candidate of the party in the election for Ethiope West, Golley Solomon, who spoke with our correspondent said, “In Djese as I am talking to you, top PDP stalwarts have been attacked. The former party chairman is in the state of coma now. Agoda and his boys invaded his home town”.
He claimed that the Presiding Officer (PO) was chased out of the town while a former House of Representatives member, Alim Agoda, unleashed wickedness on the stalwart of PDP in the area.
He commended the police for their yeoma’s job in condoling away crime from the various polling units in Oghara, “police officers were brought from Edo to Oghara”.
Though elections materials arrived late to Oghara, the election started about 11:00am, “there is peace in Oghara and Mosagar. It is only in Djese that will have skirmishes”, the chairman said.
The APC Supervisor in Oghara, Henry Ibode, also confirmed the peaceful atmosphere in Oghara, “what I hear from the outside is not what I see here. What I see here is what I am going to talk about, “so far so good, the election here has been free and fair because we are brothers and sisters from the same community and we are not arguing anything at all. So far so good, t has been peaceful here in Ward 14 and 13. There are no coarse, and no crises here”.
He gave the names of chairmanship candidate and councillorships candidates as Jefferson Emeje while his Vice is Ogheneweke Akpoyibo while the councillorships for Wards 14 and 13 are Godstime Eyowaira and Lucky Emebrado respectively.
Meanwhile, it was alleged that 90% of Ad-hoc staff and returning officers in Ughelli North, Aniocha North and other councils in the state recruited by the commission were PDP members.
At the Onicha-Olona ward 5, Presiding Officers were also PDP members while in the ward of the former House of Representatives, Ndudi Elumelu, the list of Ad-hoc staff recruited by DSIEC could not be seen.
At Oleh, Isoko South and Ozoro, Isoko North local government areas, election materials brought were alleged to be fake while result sheets were allegedly missing.
Impeccable sources said, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), in Isoko South council staged a protest to the police station where some of the sensitive materials were taken to.
