Tag: Lokoja

  • Hoodlums snatch ballot boxes in Lokoja

    Some armed thugs in police and army uniforms invaded polling units in Adankolo community in Lokoja, shooting sporadically to scare away voters on the queue.

    A Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the armed hoodlums arrived in a van and immediately started shooting.

    Voters and electoral officers scampered to safety, a development which made it possible for the thugs to carry away ballot boxes, ballot papers and other sensitive election materials.

    Worst hit were the five polling units at St Luke Primary School at Adankolo where materials at all the five polling units in the school premises were taken away.

    Also at the Polling Unit in NEPA area in Lokoja, the hoodlums, some of whom were masked, also made away with election materials after scaring away INEC officials and voters.

    Other areas under the siege of armed thugs were polling units in Ward A in Lokoja Constituency 1.

    At Okengwe Polling Unit in Okene Local Government, voting was temporarily disrupted when hoodlums attempted to snatch ballot boxes and other election materials.

    There had been fears about the possibility of armed attack on the election day among residents before now.

    One of the candidates contesting for a seat in the state House of Assembly had earlier raised the alarm over plans by some elements to disrupt election in the ward.

    The candidate, Mr Suleiman Babadoko of the PDP, had appealed to the police and DSS to quickly move in to stop the violence.

  • APC wins Lokoja/Kogi by-election

    APC wins Lokoja/Kogi by-election

    The Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Haruna Isah, has been declared winner of the Lokoja/Kogi House of Representatives by-election held on Aug.11.

    The Returning Officer, Prof. Rotimi Ajayi, who announced the results on Sunday in Lokoja, said Isah polled 26, 860 votes to defeat Alhaji Bashir Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 14, 845 votes.

    Ajayi said that Ahmed Imam of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) scored 2, 916 votes, while the candidates of the Accord Party and Alternative Democratic Congress (ADC) scored 149 votes and 2,984 votes, respectively.

    The Labour Party scored 90 votes; Democratic Alternative scored 159 votes; while Megga Party of Nigeria scored 50 votes, Ajayi stated.

    He said that 19,960 votes from 17 polling units were cancelled due to violence and other malpractices, saying that 15 of the affected polling units were in Lokoja Local Government Area, while two were from Kogi Local Government Area.

    Giving a further breakdown of the election results, the Returning Officer said that 51, 669 voters were accredited for the election while only 50,036 actually cast their votes.

    According to him, valid votes are 48,165, while rejected votes are 1,871.

    The by-election was conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fill the vacancy created by the death of the former occupant of the seat, Umar Buba Jibrin, on March 30.

    Jibrin was also of the APC.