NewsOne Killed As Delta Bye-election Turns Bloody In Isoko

One Killed As Delta Bye-election Turns Bloody In Isoko

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September 12, (THEWILL) – Armed hoodlums allegedly shot a local vigilante dead during Saturday’s Isoko South Local Government Area Constituency I bye-election for the Delta House of Assembly.

The State House of Assembly seat became vacant following the death of Hon. Kenneth Ogba in June this year.

The acting police spokesman in Delta, Bright Edafe, confirmed the development to newsmen in Warri.

Mr Edafe, who did not explain how the incident happened, said the victim was hit by a stray bullet.

An eyewitness said the incident happened at about 3:15 p.m at Irri Ward 10, Unit 5, adding that the hoodlums were probably on a mission to snatch thumb-printed ballot papers used for the election.

“The hoodlums armed with sophisticated weapons shot sporadically into the air to scare away voters before one of them shot at the victim for a reason that could yet be ascertained,” he said.

The hoodlums reportedly went away with the voting materials.

Witnesses said there were gunshots and violence in some other parts of the constituency, including Emede where election materials were also snatched.

Meanwhile, there were recorded hitches in several polling units on Saturday as the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) newly introduced Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) reportedly rejected the permanent voters card (PVC) of eligible voters.

The BVAS device, which was meant to simultaneously accredit voters with both fingerprints and photos to ensure the authenticity of the voting process, failed in some polling units across Isoko South Local Government Area.

Reacting to the malfunction, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of Delta State, Monday Udoh-Tom, said some technical hitches were experienced in some polling units, but the exercise was smooth in most parts of the constituency.

He disclosed that the technical problem experienced in some areas, which was later sorted out, came from just eight BVAS out of 84 deployed.

“Out of 84 polling units, eight BVAS had issues. Four were as a result of the wrong positioning of the cameras. It means that the voter position for snapping was noisy, meaning, the background of the pictures does not conform With BVAS requirements”, he explained.

He said four of the machines were later replaced to enable voting to commence, maintaining that no one was disenfranchised in the polling units that experienced the technical hitch.

However, the voting exercise witnessed a good turn-out and was relatively peaceful until the sad incident in the afternoon.

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