The Kogi Commissioner of Police, Mr Bethrand Onuoha, on Wednesday warned trouble makers not to create problem for Kogi since election had come and gone peacefully.
The commissioner made the plea after some suspected party supporters staged a protest at the office of the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday.
“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 Petition Tribunal.
“I was taken aback when some Social Democratic party, (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, ” he said.
Some suspected supporters of the SDP in Kogi had stormed the state secretariat of INEC in the early 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.
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.
“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 the tribunal, or we will make Kogi State ungovernable.
“We are calling on the president and also the National 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,” he said.
