One shot death at Isoko South Constituency 1 bye-election

UGHELLI – An unidentified voter was shot dead by sus­pected thugs during the State House of Assembly by-election for Isoko South Constituency I, Delta State.

An eye witness who did not want his name in print told journalists that the voter was gunned down at about 3.15 pm when armed thugs invaded polling unit 5 of Irri Ward 11 to hijack ballot boxes before securi­ty operatives were mobil­ised to the scene to restore peace.

The eye witness stated further that the gunmen, armed with AK47 riffles, shot intermittently into the air to scare away vot­ers when the victim was hit.

Meanwhile, the by-elec­tion commenced in ear­nest as voting materials were already distributed by the Independent Na­tional Electoral Commis­sion (INEC) to most units visited in the local govern­ment headquarters, Oleh as at 3.pm on Friday.

The Presiding Officer of Unit 16, Akeredolu Mercy who spoke with our cor­respondence, however affirmed the early arrival of materials, adding that for the particular unit, accreditation started at exactly 8.30am though the turnout of voters was still very low as at press time.

While speaking with newsmen at his country in Uro-Irri community af­ter casting his vote at his unit, the Director General of the PDP Campaign Or­ganisation for the Isoko South Constituency 1, State House of Assembly by-election, Sir Constan­tine Ikpokpo, described the election as very inter­esting, adding that INEC’s performance was excep­tional and impressive.