By Jeremiah Archibong, Jonathan Ugbal, Ushang Ewa and Itiunbe Atunka
Despite the presence of over 1,000 police officers and over 5 dozen personnel of different security agencies, at least two have been injured in the Obudu house of assembly bye-election with the results of one polling unit cancelled so far due to hijack of electoral materials.
Information reaching CrossRiverWatch suggests an unknown man was stabbed at the polling unit of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Bendebel Ishamali at Obudu urban ward 1.
CrossRiverWatch had reported that the rear right windshield of a white Toyota Hilux van belonging to an aide to governor Ben Ayade on research and branding, Mr. Christian Odey popularly referred to as ‘Ukpan’ and ‘Engineer Dig Down’ was shattered at the same polling unit.
It is unclear what caused the fight but a source said there were efforts to hijack electoral materials which were violently rejected.
Meanwhile, at Ward 7, security officials were invited by the electoral staff to stop the unruliness that had characterised the collation center.
At the Obudu urban ward 1 (Ward 5), the results of polling unit 006 (Timber Market) was cancelled due to the hijack of materials.
CrossRiverWatch gathered that some thugs had arrived the scene of the elections with dummy sensitive materials already prepared and when they could not change them with the originals, overpowered the electoral staff and security personnel and carted the materials away.
As at the end of voting time, no materials were available and the ward collation officer declared that no elections held and filed the necessary information with the reports of the presiding officers which were submitted to the returning officer.
The polling unit has 803 registered voters.
Also, three polling units in Begiading ward (ward 3) with 1,852 registered voters as well as two polling units in Alege/Ubang ward (ward 1) with 1,390 registered voters were cancelled due to snatching of election materials and violence.
The polling units in ward three were PU 013, PU 012 and PU 04.
The polling units in ward one were the Mbokwu town hall polling unit with code 003 and the Mfembe primary school polling unit with code 011.
Also, at the Angiaba/Begiading ward, the results of one polling unit with code PU 012 was also cancelled.
The total number of registered voters in the seven polling units where elections were cancelled was over 4,000
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) fielded candidates for the election with the PDP winning.
CrossRiverWatch could not confirm incidents of vote buying in several areas but observers told our correspondents that they were heated arguments across several polling units.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed information suggests that some security agents had been compromised by bigwigs of the APC and PDP.
However, none of the political party is yet to comment on these issues.
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