‘25 INEC Staff Still Hospitalised’

The 25 employees of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who sustained various degrees of injuries are still being treated in various hospitals in Rivers State.
The staff were said to have sustained injuries during the last Saturday’s supplementary legislative elections in Etche and Omuma federal and state constituencies.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State, Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak, while speaking recently said that 25 employees of the Independent National Electoral Commission beaten up by suspected political thugs during the supplementary election in Etche, were still in the hospital.
Ikoiwak regretted that one of the employees who was severely beaten, was still lying unconscious in a hospital.
The REC said some suspected thugs invaded INEC’s office in Etche and attacked its employees while other INEC workers on election duty were beaten at various polling units in the area, adding that the workers also had their personal belongings stolen.
According to him, “The INEC staff members were not beaten up in their homes; they were beaten up in polling units in the morning, some of them inside their offices. They were beaten up by suspected political thugs, who destroyed (ballot) boxes.”
He, however, dismissed the claim by a leader of one of the major political parties in the state that INEC officials succumbed to the pressure from the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, to declare the election inconclusive.
He said the results of the supplementary election were declared according to the dictates of the law, adding that the winners emerged based on simple majority votes.