No fewer than 50 suspected political thugs were on Saturday arrested by Nigerian Military personnels at Ulakwo Ward in Etche local Government, during Rivers State rerun election.

The suspects were arrested from different units of the ward for allegedly attempting to disrupt the legislative election in the council area.

Eyewitness said that the suspects were sighted sitting on the ground and were surrounded by some military and policemen deployed to the state to forestall violence.

Reacting to the incident, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of Rivers rerun poll, Ikoiwak Aniedi, urged the media to focus more on electoral violence in Nigeria.

He said that while the Commission was saddled with the responsibility of conducting elections, the issue of electoral violence should equally be considered priority.

Aniedi stressed the need for journalists to report exactly what they witnessed during elections, saying this would go a long in checking some of the violence perpetrated during elections.

The REC however, said that the police would brief the commission officially on the arrests made during the poll conducted in the state.

At Obite Ward 10, Unit 3, the attempt of some political thugs to snatch a bag of electoral materials from INEC officials was repelled by the police.

The electoral official, who declined to disclose her name, informed newsmen that the election was peaceful in the unit except for the incident.

She narrated that the thugs stormed the booth when the result was about to be counted, saying we saw some thugs rushing on us, we quickly packed all the materials in a bag.

“But they tried to snatch the bag with us and took it; fortunately, the police intervened and retrieved the bag from them, gave it back to us and escorted us to INEC office in the area.”

The Police Spokesman in Rivers, Nnamdi Omoni, said that the police have not made any arrest yet, and so could not comment on what other security agents had done.

The election is the conclusion of the 2015 general elections to fill up Etche state Constituency II and Etche/Omuma Federal Constituency seats.

Elections into the legislative seats were postponed indefinitely following the violence that broke out during the general elections in the area in 2015.

http://www.metronaija.com/2017/02/nigerian-military-arrests-50-suspects.html

cc: lalasticlala mynd44