The Governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Ibeno and Onna local government areas in Southern Akwa Ibom has been a theatre of bloodshed, reports available to SaharaReporters say, with no fewer than five killed in Onna.
The Governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Ibeno and Onna local government areas in Southern Akwa Ibom has been a theatre of bloodshed, reports available to SaharaReporters say, with no fewer than five killed in Onna.
The deaths occurred in an exchange of gunfire between PDP thugs loyal to Bishop Sam Akpan, Deputy Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party )PDP) in Akwa Ibom, and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) thugs loyal to an Ex-PDP chieftain popularly called “Black,” who had defected to CPC.
Bishop Samuel Akpan, a close ally of Governor Akpabio and the founder of Akwa Ibom Peoples Forum (AKPF), a socio cultural group that enthroned Akpabio in 2007, hails from Onna.
SaharaReporters gathered that the casualties occurred when the thugs, who laid an ambush for election materials in Odio community, opened fire on the vehicle conveying election materials for communities in the local government area.
Thugs from rival political parties returned gunfire and four people were killed in the process while the voting materials were plundered by both PDP and CPC thugs.
The Police DPO in Onna, Mr Peter Ekanem, confirmed the deaths to SaharaReporters. “There were pockets of violence but by the time our men get there, they will not find (those responsible). They are isolated incidents and we learnt that three people died in Odio community,” the DPO said.
Elections did not hold in some of the areas whose materials were hijacked, while the hijacked materials were used to rig elections in favour of the PDP.
Bishop Akpan subsequently sent a reinforcement of policemen to salvage his group in the fracas but unknown to him, soldiers on patrol duty who got wind of the policemen on illegal duty arrested his policemen.
He made frantic efforts to get Akpabio to release the Policemen assigned to him for the clandestine operations, but the military men had taken them away to Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.
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