Five suspects who allegedly engaged in ballot snatching during last weekend’s election in Rivers State were yesterday paraded in Abuja by the police.
Parading the suspects Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Don Awunah said that in the course of the rerun election in Rivers State, the suspects attempted to scuttle the electoral process but were arrested with INEC sensitive materials, arms and ammunition.
He gave the names of the suspects as Noble, Dike, Valentine, Onwunari, and Iloke (surnames withheld).
Exhibits recovered from the suspects include a green INEC-branded bag, eight booklets of ballot papers meant for Emohua LGA, a booklet of INEC accreditation incident report forms, a booklet of statement of results and a blood-stained APC agent Identity card.
Arms recovered from the suspects also include one AK 47 rifle, one assault rifle, six magazines and 112 rounds of live ammunition.
The Force PRO further said that the suspects were allegedly responsible for several armed attacks that took place during the election in places like Abonnema, Emuoha, Elele, Eteche and Omoku where a police officer was gruesomely killed.
He added that the rifles and 112 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the suspects while the other members of the killer gang fled, but said that detectives were on their trail Awunah also disclosed that some security personnel were arrested for professional misconduct, actions, inactions, omission and commission that were detrimental to the electoral process during last Saturday’s Rivers State parliamentary re-run elections.
He said that some of them directly or indirectly connived with some politicians to scuttle the process, adding that a high-powered investigative panel is currently looking into the said professional misconduct.
The Force PRO also remarked that the attempt by some major political gladiators in the state to foist violence on the people and trigger an atmosphere of insecurity in the state failed woefully. “These political gladiators and major stakeholders clandestinely promoted violence and exhibited abuse of power and office,” he stated, adding that the police only had a casualty as a missing person could not be declared dead but missing in action.