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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.
