Bye-Election: Thugs Hijack Ballot Box In Ondo

In a brazen act of electoral violence, suspected political thugs disrupted the voting process during the by-election for the Akoko North-East and Akoko North-West Federal Constituency at Unit 5, Ward 13 in Oyinmo, Ikare-Akoko, on Saturday.

According to eyewitnesses, the attackers stormed the polling unit, causing panic among the electorate, and forcibly took away the ballot box.

The incident, which occurred just before noon, saw many voters fleeing for safety.

Despite the chaos, the attackers were unable to take the result sheet, BVAS machine, and other electoral materials.

Out of 407 registered voters at the unit, only 63 had cast their votes before the disruption.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) praised the voter turnout in the constituency despite the unfortunate event.

Prof. Kunle Ajayi, INEC National Commissioner supervising Osun, Ogun, and Ondo State, expressed satisfaction with the electoral process in other parts of the constituency while speaking to journalists in Okeagbe, Akoko North-West LGA.

The commission is yet to make an official statement on the ballot box snatching incident as investigations continue.

He said, “From what we have observed since morning, the election is going on peacefully, and the turnout is impressive, no violence, no vote buying anywhere.

“So, we have not recorded any terrible incident since the start of the election and by the grace of God, everything will end peacefully.

“Everywhere we have been to, there was no report of challenges with the BVAS machine or cases of it malfunctioning.”

Commenting on the incident of ballot box snatching at Unit 5, Ward 13, Oyinmo, Ikare-Akoko, the national commissioner said that the situation had been restored to normalcy.

He added, “Is normal that miscreants will remain miscreants, they attempted to disturb the election there but the police overpowered them and we have restored everything to order and no other incident apart from that.”