Nigerian polls marred by ballot-box snatching

Nigeria’s state governorship polls yesterday were hit by numerous cases of ballot-box snatching, police said, despite a bid by Africa’s most populous nation to limit such voting day fraud.

In northern Katsina and Kano states, authorities spoke of a number of such cases, while it also reportedly occurred in several states in the south, including Akwa Ibom, Imo, Delta and Rivers.

In Bayelsa state in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, violence and the hijacking of election materials led to the arrest of 13 people, authorities said.

Six ballot-box snatching cases were reported in the main northern city of Kano, said electoral commission official Abdullahi Umar Danyaya.

“We’ve alerted security operatives and have launched an investigation to determine the magnitude of the problem for appropriate action,” he said.

On the outskirts of Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state, one ruling party supporter who declined to be named said someone arrived at a polling place “with five boys and carried the papers and other documents” before speeding off.

“They went to another polling unit and started making trouble, but some boys there defended the ballot materials,” he said, adding the culprits were from his own party, but he disagreed with what they were doing.

Nigeria has long been plagued by ballot-box snatching among other forms of vote rigging, but it has undertaken an enormous effort in a bid to hold credible elections in three landmark ballots this month.

Parliamentary polls were held on April 9 and a presidential election took place April 16, which was won by President Goodluck Jonathan. Observers have so far hailed the conduct of the previous two polls as significant steps forward.

President Jonathan said earlier yesterday that “the era where people snatch ballot boxes during elections is fast eroding in our country.”Most of Nigeria’s 36 states held governorship and state assembly ballots yesterday.

The elections came after rioting last week in the wake of the presidential vote that killed more than 500 people, according to a local rights group.