Nigeria Content Online

Five people were
arrested by the police in Masaka and Maraba area of Nasarawa State in a
vehicle with thumbprinted ballot papers.

A woman called
Godiya Sunday was also arrested in Akwanga with a thumb-printed ballot
paper. 252 ballot papers were for state house of assembly, 406 were for
governorship, and 140 were for the Labour Party repectively.

Briefing
journalists at the Independent Electoral Commission headquarters in
Lafia, the state police commissioner, Emmanuel Obiko, said the suspects
were arrested at about 10:30am by his men who were stationed at a check
point mounted to restrict movement of people.

He said the matter
is still under investigation and that nobody would be charged to court
until the police concludes its findings.

“If anybody is found guilty, that person would be charged to court for prosecution,” Mr Obiko said.

Although the whole exercise in parts of the state was peaceful and orderly, the scenario in some areas was entirely different.

There was a case of
ballot snatching by four men suspected to be PDP members in Angwan
Mangu polling unit in Ciroma ward of Lafia. Although 1289 were
registered in the unit, only 421 were accredited according to the
presiding officer, Friday Dirikumo. The arrival of security agents at
the polling unit prevented the situation from degenerating into crisis.

There was low
turnout of voters across the state. Some of the electorate blamed their
apathy on the post election violence that took place across the nation.
This made some of them to relocate from where they were staying to
their villages.

“We have been disfranchised during the last presidential election,” a resident says.

An INEC official,
Amina Zekeri, however, said the commission could not say there is low
turnout until the exercise comes to an end.

Also reacting to
the low turnout, the Senate elect for Nasarawa south, Suleiman Adokwe,
said this could be as a result of the bomb blast in the previous
elections across the country.