Angry voters set INEC office ablaze in Kaduna.

By Segun Olatunji

Angry voters in Anchau, Kubau Local Government Area of Kaduna State, on Saturday set ablaze the INEC office in the area after chasing away the members of staff of the commission.

Many of the voters who claimed to have arrived at the various polling stations in the area as early as 6.30am, decided to go to the INEC office to verify the reasons for the delay in the arrival of election officers and voting materials.

An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that tempers flared and a violent protest ensued when there was no INEC official on hand to explain the situation to the demonstrators who subsequently set the INEC office in the area ablaze.

Unspecified number of persons were also said to have been injured. Several calls put through by our correspondent to the INEC Acting Public Affairs Officer, Mrs. Fatima Bande, were not answered.

Also in Zaria, irate youths numbering about 500 beat up and stripped naked a man suspected to be in possession of ballot papers at a polling unit in Durumin Maigarke. The police unsuccessfully tried to rescue the suspect. The youths tore his dress and used it to tie his hands behind him.

The Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties and second republic governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, alleged that the postponement of the election was a ploy by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to secure an extension of the tenure of its current political office holders.

Musa alleged that since the 1999 constitution allowed the government in power to remain in office till the conduct of the next election, the PDP government was taking every step to truncate the April elections with the ultimate aim of extending its stay in office.

He said, “What this means is that the PDP is going to have a third term in office. The 1999 constitution says that when elections fail to hold, the governors and the President should remain in power till such a time when elections are conducted.

“By May 29, the President and the governors will continue and you know that the National Assembly will not allow them to continue without them and so, they will go and amend the constitution to take care of them.”