Three officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been arrested by the police over the diversion of election materials in Taraba State.
INEC conducted a by-election for the Karim Lamido I Constituency of the State House of Assembly, along with 15 other constituencies in 13 states across the country, on Saturday.
The constituency has 131 Polling units spread across five wards and 87.79% of results had been uploaded to INEC IREV at press time.
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The elections suffered from malpractices and low turnout of voters for the election.
According to Northern-based reporter Zagazola Makama, unnamed sources stated that a tip-off by party agents prompted the police to arrest the election management staff on Saturday.
“The sources said the incident occurred on August 16 at about 2:20 pm when a team of policemen intercepted the suspects at a private residence in Angwan Sarkin Panya village,” Zagazola Makama wrote on X (Link archived here).
The election agents arrested were 49-year-old Gideon Amos, an Assistant Presiding Officer II posted to Polling Unit 16, Angwan Yusuf Dogo, Bikwin Ward, 47-year-old Matthew Jayi and 32-year-old Tiasama Mathias Musa.
They “allegedly diverted materials meant for three polling units, PU 005 Gandara, PU 016 Angwan Yusuf Dogo, and PU 029 Angwan Sarkin Primary School, to the residence”.
The police were said to have retrieved various items, including three ballot boxes, two BIVAS machines, 19 booklets and 20 pieces of ballot papers, two stamp pads with ink, one marker and two result sheets, from the suspects.
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The police also met some resistance as Police Constable Christian Garba “had his uniform forcibly removed by hoodlums who fled with it”.
When ballot papers and other critical voting materials are diverted, the actors usually go to hidden location to mass-thumbprint the the papers and stuff them into a ballot box to set them up as valid votes.
James Lashen, spokesperson for the Taraba Police Command, did not immediately answer calls placed across to him on Sunday. WhatsApp and text messages seeking to get more details had got no response at press time.
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