The Commissioner, Kogi State Police Command, CP Bethrand Onuoha, on Wednesday warned trouble makers not to create problems for Kogi State since the governorship election had come and gone peacefully.
This followed a protest at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday in Lokoja.
Some supporters of the Social Democratic Party staged the protest.
Onuoha said: “We thank God that the off-cycle governorship election of Kogi has come and gone peacefully and we don’t expect any one to cause any problem for us.
“As security agency, we are imploring the politicians and INEC to follow the legal constitutional process since the issues are being handled by the Election Petitions Tribunal.
“I was taken aback when some SDP protesters filed out with various placards trying to barricade the INEC.
“I had to address them against that and urged them to go away and use the tribunal to address whatever grievances so as not to create problem for our peaceful state.”
Some suspected supporters of the SDP in Kogi State had stormed the state secretariat of INEC in the morning of Wednesday, protesting against alleged “INEC’s tampering with election materials”.
Security agencies, however, moved in on time to prevent an attack on the INEC Office, dispersing the protesters with tear gas and barricading the road leading to the office.
The protest at first started peacefully, until some of the protesters started throwing harmful objects and harassing passers-by.
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The protesters were demanding that the election materials be moved to Abuja.
One of the protesters, who identified himself as Danjuma, told newsmen that they were sure the materials at the INEC office had been compromised by the APC.
Danjuma said: “We have it on good authority that the APC and Yahaya Bello have tampered with the election materials.
“The materials they are taking to the tribunal have already been doctored.
“So we are calling on INEC to take the original material to INEC or we will make Kogi State ungovernable.
“We are calling on the President and also the Chairman of INEC to ensure the doctored materials are immediately replaced with the original ones before they are presented at the tribunal.
“Anything other than that will be resisted.”
Contacted, the Director, Media and Publicity of the Kogi State All Progressives Congress Governorship Campaign Council, Kingsley Fanwo, dismissed the allegations as senseless and called on the authorities to call the SDP to order.
He said the APC would assess the situation and issue an official statement on it later, noting: “The SDP people know they have no evidence to back their claims.
“They are playing the victim to cover their shame.”
Fanwo called on the SDP to allow the Tribunal to sit peacefully and give INEC the breathing space to do their work as required by the law.
The SDP, in a statement issued by Faruk Adejoh-Audu, Spokesman, Muri-Sam Governorship Campaign Council, disowned the protesters and branded them as Governor Yahaya Bello’s sponsored thugs.
The statement said: “Over 500 persons, most of them thugs have been deployed to the INEC office in Lokoja to attack lawyers and forensic experts of the SDP, to prevent them from examining documents and materials emanating from the Kogi November 11 governorship elections.
“The thugs and posters procured for them have also been detailed to attack and sack the office to ensure the materials needed for our party to prosecute its petition at the tribunal are compromised.”
Nevertheless, when the election petitions tribunal resumed sitting on Wednesday, lead Counsel to the SDP, John Adele (SAN), told the Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu panel that INEC had started complying with the tribunal’s order for the release of electoral materials for their inspection.
“My lord, INEC has started complying but only this morning some protesters barricaded the road to its (commission’s) office and we don’t know why,” Adele said.
Justice Birnin-Kudu, however, urged the security operatives in the state to rise to the occasion and ensure that INEC was well protected and secured.
The tribunal had on Saturday ordered INEC to provide the SDP with certified copies of required election materials to help it challenge the victory of the APC at the November 11 governorship election.
Usman Ododo of the APC had won the election with a wide margin, polling 446,237 votes to defeat his closest rival, Murtala Ajaka of the SDP, who got 259,052 votes.
Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party polled 46,362 votes.