Suspected political thugs on Saturday disrupted the Akoko North-East and Akoko North-West Federal Constituency by-election at Polling Unit 5, Ward 13 in Oyinmo, Ikare Akoko. 

The thugs carted away the ballot box, the result sheets and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine at the polling unit. 

Peoples Gazette gathered that the disruption caused panic and anxiety among the electorate, who had queued to exercise their franchise.

Witnesses told The Gazette that the thugs came in motorbikes, pretending to be voters before disrupting the election. 

“They came into the PU, causing some sort of commotion, and before the security agents here could talk to them, one of them grabbed the ballot box and ran away with it.

“Other gangs also picked up the materials and fled. It took the help of security agencies before normalcy was returned to the voting point. It’s just sad that some youths still allowed themselves to be used by politicians,” one of the sources told The Gazette. 

It was also learnt that a few among the over 400 voters cast their votes before the thugs barged in to disrupt the process. 

Confirming the incident, Kunle Ajayi, INEC’s national commissioner, said the situation was brought under control in collaboration with the police, who calmed the nerves of the electorates.

Mr Ajayi, who is also supervising Ondo, Osun and Ogun states for the electoral body, said the action of the miscreants would not deter INEC from ensuring the election is free, fair and credible.

“They attempted to disturb the election there, but the police overpowered them, and we have restored everything to order and no other incident apart from that,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Saturday’s election was peaceful in other major areas of the constituencies where the election was conducted. 

Amid tight security, the electorates trooped out in their numbers to vote to fill the House of Representatives seat vacated by Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. 

INEC had declared that the election would be in 329 polling units of the constituency, with eight political parties participating in the exercise.

Meanwhile, the election had been a two-horse race between the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ifeoluwa Ehindero and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olalekan Bada. 

Both candidates had expressed optimism of winning the election.