Rivers re-run: Police parade suspected snatchers of election materials

Five suspected election materials snatchers, allegedly arrested during last Saturday’s national and state legislative re-run elections in Rivers State, were paraded last night in Abuja by police authorities. The suspected election materials snatchers at the just-concluded Rivers State re-run elections and the recovered items, paraded by police at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan. The suspects, Noble Nwaerema, Dike Deinpiribo, Valentine Alalibo, Onwunari Warmate and Iloke Stephen, were paraded before newsmen by the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Donald Awunah, who said sensitive Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, materials were recovered from them. Items recovered from them included one AK-47 rifle, one assault rifle, six magazines, 112 rounds of live ammunition, a green INEC-branded bag, eight booklets of ballot papers for Emohua Local Government Area, one booklet of INEC accreditation incident report forms, one booklet of statement of results and one blood-stained All Progressives Congress, APC, agent identity card. Awunah said Nwaerema, 33, claimed he was hired by the youth leader of a community and eight others from a neighbouring state. He said they invaded Emouha Local Government Area and carted away electoral materials meant for polling units within the area, adding that others, who participated in the crime, were at large. “Intelligence reports confirmed that the materials were taken to a government facility and escorted by armed personnel,” he said. The police spokesman disclosed that Deipiribo, Alalibo, Warmate and Stephen, said they were engaged by a lawmaker (names withheld), who procured two AK-47 rifles and commissioned his driver to convey the weapons. He said the suspects were responsible for several attacks that took place during elections in Abonnema, Emuoha, Elele, Etche and Omoku. The spokesman said that a high-powered investigative panel was looking into the misconduct of some security personnel during the re-run elections in Rivers. While noting that the suspects would be prosecuted after investigation was concluded, Awunah said: “The police will decisively deal with anybody involved irrespective of status or political affiliation.”