Suspected thugs on Wednesday disrupted the election into various offices of Delta State-owned Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku students’ union government (SUG), while six of the students allegedly sustained various degree of injuries during ensuing fracas in the early hours.
It was gathered that the violence from thugs erupted at the election venue when it became clear that some highly-placed lecturers allegedly opened “doors” for rigging the election.
Sources said that a Higher National Diploma student in the Department of Engineering was leading two others contenders when the move to stuff the ballot box was uncovered, a situation that led to the unrest.
But a lecturer, Judith Okafor, who spoke to DAILY POST, said: “The management was interested in the victory of a student of Business Administration, and the Engineering student smelt a rat, and immediately mobilized some thugs who invaded the elections venue with guns, battle axes, and they started shooting, six persons were injured before the police moved into the situation to stop the election.”
Speaking to DAILY POST, the police spokesman in the state, DSP Andrew Aniamaka, who confirmed the development, said: “Our men at the police Ogwashi-Uku Division moved into the crisis, and arrested the situation. Three of the thugs were arrested, and the election was stopped, we are investigating the unrest”.
Unconfirmed sources said that the school’s former SUG was allegedly sacked for fraudulent act, and a fresh election was ordered to be conducted by the school management. Aggrieved students, who also spoke to DAILY POST on condition of anonymity, said: “We have made it clear that we would not accept a caretaker committee, already we are hearing the rumour that the management wants to impose one of us, but we will resist it. We don’t want any person imposed on us, some management staff want to rig, we will not allow that”.
Speaking on the incident, the Rector of the Polytechnic, Professor (Mrs.) Stella Ekemiekazie told DAILY POST: “We had to cancel the election when we saw it was becoming too violent and some thugs were invited into it. The police are already handling that. It is not true that we supported a candidate, or influenced any student. All allegations are not true, we want peace in the school.”
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