Sokoto rerun: Party agents, supporters exchange blows

The supplementary elections at Rijiya “A” 004 polling unit in Sokoto South local government was almost marred by chaotic atmosphere with attendant rowdiness, tension and anxiety resulting to exchange of blows between supporters and agents of the two major political parties.

It took the presence of the Commissioner of police, Mr Garba D. Muhammad and his men to control the situation.

A source told The Nation that the situation was sparked by attempt from an agent of one of the major contenders to engage in alleged vote buying.

” The agent was negotiating at N10,000 per vote,”c he said.

Inspite of the tight security, the exercise at the polling unit with no fewer than 405 registered, created a chaotic atmosphere which almost overwhelmed security agents deployed to the unit.

However, the polling unit was already speculated to be a tough spot where the contest was kin during the general elections.

Besides, materials and INEC officials were prompt with smart card readers functioning smoothly in most polling units visited.

It was gathered that voters had filed out since 6am at the polling units with large turnout of women to exercise their franchise.

The state Commissioner of Finance, Saidu Umar who spoke at the scene of the exercise urged security agents to remain vigilant to ensure the smooth conduct of polls.

Similarly, Professor Aisha Isah Madawaki said the process commenced orderly and peaceful but at a point, the scenario became tensed and the exercise almost got disrupted.

However, larger attention by the two contending political parties, security and other stakeholders is shifted to Kebbe and Gada respectively due to the high number of polling units.

The two local governments have the largest concentration of registered voters unit 35 and 29 polling units respectively totaling 64.