Hoodlums attack collation centre in Cross River, destroy electoral materials and beat up officers

Hoodlums invaded the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee collation centre for the Ogoja Constituency in Cross River and destroyed election supplies.

The hoodlums, who stormed the centre on Sunday, March 19, 2023, additionally carted away telephones, beat up many ward collation officers and disrupted the collation of outcomes.

In keeping with the PUNCH, bother began when outcomes from Nkum Irede have been introduced and a few occasion brokers didn’t settle for the figures.

It was additionally gathered that the Nkum Irede Ward end result was the seventh out of the ten wards in Ogoja Native Authorities Space and the Peoples Democratic Social gathering was clearly main.

The Collation officer for Mbube East 1, Dr Paul Bassey Inyang, who was attacked mentioned the hoodlums have been over 30 in quantity, including that his laptop computer and duplicate end result sheets have been all destroyed.

“Considered one of my colleagues continues to be being handled within the theatre and I pray he comes out alive as heavy stones and planks have been used on him,” Dr Inyang mentioned.

The Electoral Officer for Ogoja Native Authorities Space, Mr Peter Kolo, mentioned the hoodlums broke all safety limitations to disrupt collation and destroy election outcomes.

“As I speak to you we have now recovered all the outcomes from each the BVAS and uploaded leads to the portal and we’ll quickly resume asserting outcomes from the three remaining wards,” he mentioned.

The Ogoja Constituency Collation Officer, Dr Timothy Ellah, mentioned he was overwhelmed by thugs who carted away some end result sheets, including that he sustained minor accidents.

“Now we have nevertheless recovered all the outcomes and we’re able to resume asserting the outcomes,” he mentioned.

The governorship Collation Officer for Ogoja Native Authorities, Prof. John Undie, mentioned they’re fortunate to have survived the assault, including that everyone contained in the corridor was overwhelmed.

He, nevertheless, counseled the police for deploying extra officers to thrust back the invaders.

The spokesperson of the State Police Command, Irene Ugbo, who confirmed the assault, including that the suspected thugs have been arrested.