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…Allegedly dispersing voters with bullets, teargas
There
are indications that the alleged use of Police helicopter in last Saturday’s
governorship and senatorial elections in Kogi state may afterall not be mere
propaganda but a shocking reality.
Beyond
the testimonies and allegations of interested parties like the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Kogi state, Engr. Idris Wada
and Senator Dino Melaye both of who were candidates of the PDP in last Satuday’s
elections, more persons have testified to the scandalous reality that the Nigerian
Police may have deployed its helicopter to illegal uses.
A
video interview with a voter in the Lokoguma primary school polling unit in Lokoja,
Kogi state suggests that a helicopter was used to disperse voters in the
polling unit paving way for thugs and hoodlum in the guise of security men to
invade the polling unit and snatch ballot materials while shooting sporadically
at the voters.
The
voter whose name was said to be Seun Aduje noted that it was obvious that the
polling centre was clearly a PDP stronghold, so the men came shooting from the helicopter
and on the ground through thugs backed by security men who ransacked the
polling unit and allegedly took away most of the ballot materials to the Government
House.
“While
people were scampering to safety, many persons wounded and some sustained
bullet wounds in the buttocks and some other around the thigh. I particularly
took some of the injured victims of the attack to the Specialist Hospital in
Lokoja. And the sad thing is that it was a Police helicopter that was shooting
from the air at people who have only come to exercise their franchise.”
In condemning the level of violence visited on the
electorate, Wada had said that his team and party were prepared for the
election and had campaigned across all the Local Government Areas.
“But how can one confront a government with all the
apparatti of coercion. Imagine security agents using helicopters to teargas
voters. It happened in Ganaja, some people were shot from the helicopter. In fact
two persons lost their lives”, Wada said.
For Senator Dino Melaye who had taunted the APC endless
for what he called the “helicopter election”, it was an innovation in
electoral malpractices and terror.
He
said: “The innovation is that what we had is what I have christened
‘Helicopter election’. For the first time, rigging has been advanced to the
level that now they use a helicopter in perpetuating electoral atrocity as
manifested last Saturday.
“Helicopter hovering around polling units in
Lokoja, dropping bullets on innocent, harmless citizens and electorate; and I
can also tell you that, Saturday, teargas were being fired from this
helicopter.”
“Despite the fact that this helicopter was
used in harassing, intimidating and firing at the innocent electorate, the
votes of those places were carted away and taken to the government house,
stuffed and brought back to the collation centre and they were accepted and
admitted and collation is ongoing.
Dino lamented that his community was reduced
to battleground leading to the killing of his nephew, Juwon. Fundex Bitport
