Security agents arrest about 50 suspected thugs in Etche

A group of boys numbering about 50, suspected to be political thugs have been arrested by security agents in Ulakwo Ward 13 for allegedly trying to disrupt the on- going legislative election in Etche.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the boys were seen sitting on the ground on Saturday, surrounded by some military and policemen.

They were alleged to have been arrested from different units of the Ward.

Reacting to the incident, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of Rivers, Mr Ikoiwak Aniedi urged the media to focus more on electoral violence in Nigeria.

He said that while the Commission was saddled with the responsibility of conducting elections, the issue of electoral violence should equally be considered.

Aniedi stressed the need for journalists to report exactly what they witnessed during elections.

This, he noted would go a long in checking some of the violence perpetrated during elections.

He, however, said that the police would brief the commission officially on the situation on ground.

The electoral official, who declined to disclose her name, informed NAN that the election was peaceful in the unit except for the incident.

She said that when the result was about to be counted, “we saw some thugs rushing to us, we quickly packed all the materials in a bag’’.

“But they struggled the bag with us and took it; fortunately, the police intervened and rescued the bag from them, gave it back to us and escorted us to INEC office in the area.’’

The Police Spokesman in Rivers, DSP Nnamdi Omoni said that the police had not made any arrest yet, and so could not comment on what other security agents had done.

The election is the conclusion of the 2015 general elections to fill up Etche state Constituency II and Etche/Omuma Federal Constituency seats.

Elections into the legislative seats were postponed indefinitely following the violence that broke out during the general elections in the area in 2015.