Hours before the commencement of the off-cycle governorship election in Edo, the state government said soldiers had repelled some suspected thugs that attempted to invade the Oredo Local Government Secretariat of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, disclosed this at a press conference in Benin City.
Nehikhare, who commended the soldiers for their efforts, encouraged them to go across the 18 local government offices of INEC to take possession of collation centres.
He alleged that the thugs planned to attack collation centres, especially those of Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba Okha local government areas.
According to him: “We have just been told that thugs have taken over some of the INEC offices across some of the local government areas, especially Oredo, Etsako West, Esan West and some of the very serious local government areas. We don’t know which party they belong to.
“We just want you to know that this kind of activity is not acceptable. But, just before I stepped into this place, we were told that soldiers had repelled these thugs from Oredo secretariat and made them go across the road and now there is a border around the collation centre.
“We are also hearing that they planned to attack these collation centres, especially the strongholds, like Oredo, Egor, and Ikpoba/Okha. But I’m smiling because I’m happy with what the soldiers are doing and they are showing character and discipline and telling people that they should not be intimidated by what is going on.
“We want to encourage the soldiers to please go across the 18 local government headquarters and take possession of these collation centres.
There are ugly trends building up, but we are pleased to announce that the soldiers are on top of it. The soldiers have recovered Oredo secretariat.”
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