The electoral officers of Rijau Local Government Area in Niger State escaped being burnt alive by voters in Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections.
According to the Collation Officer, Isah Abubakar, who narrated their ordeal in the hands of party agents and party supporters stated that they were lucky to have left Rijau alive.
He stated that the agents and supporters were not happy when they refused to declare the election inconclusive.
Abubakar further stated that they were under pressure to declare the election inconclusive because elections were cancelled in three polling units.
“There was an issue of cancellation in three polling units in Tunga Magajiya. It was agreed that two of these polling units agreed that it should be cancelled but one was under contention.
“We were under siege to complete the result and announce it there or they will burn down the collation centre with us inside.
“They insisted that unless fresh elections are re-conducted in these three polling units, we will not go out of Rijau alive. With the intervention of the local government chairman, they agreed that the election be declared inconclusive,” he said.
He also said that the results of the three polling units affected both the results for the governorship and House of Assembly elections while the other 10 polling units had no problem.
As of the time of filing this report, deliberations were ongoing by party collation officers to decide if fresh elections would be conducted in the polling units and if the results of the local government area would be declared inconclusive, thereby making the declaration of the state governorship elections inconclusive.
The results of 24 local government areas in Niger State have been declared with APC leading in 19 local government areas.
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