Army parades INEC officials, 54 others for electoral malpractices

PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – The Nigerian Army has, again, paraded 53 electoral offenders, including 11 National Youth Service Corps members, and 43 others over alleged electoral fraud in Rivers State.

Deputy Director of Public Relations, 6 Division, Port Harcourt, Col Aminu Illiasu, who paraded the suspects, stated that the corps members were arrested in a hotel in Gokana Local Government Area of the State filling result sheets in favour of a political party during the Saturday, February 23, Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Illiyasu, while parading the suspects at the 6 Division Headquarters Port Harcourt pointed out that preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects were moved from the polling units to a hotel to rig the elections in favour of a political party.

He added that the items recovered from the hotel include 34 ballot boxes loaded with ballot papers, three card readers, 10 bags containing electoral materials and Toyota Hiace bus with registration No. Lagos EQ171KRD.

A youth corps member, Mr. Ewitimi Jimicoal, who spoke on behalf of the youth corp members disclosed that they were whisked away under gun point by some men and were forced to fill result sheets by political the thugs.

“On Saturday after the Presidential and National Assembly elections, we heard sporadic gunshots at the polling units and immediately, some boys and some community men forced us into a bus and drove us to an unknown location”

“Right there at the place, the boys forced us to forge the result in favour of a political party at gunpoint and out of fear we did so, and while we were still surrounded with guns, the army came and arrested us”.

The Army also paraded a middle aged man, Gogo Meshach, who was arrested with 142 Permanent Voters Card (PVC), and 42 pages of voters list. The suspects were handed over to the police for further investigations and possible prosecution.