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In preparation for election rigging, a 53-year-old woman whose name was not given has been arrested at a business Centre in Baruwa, Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos where she was making photocopies and laminating electoral materials suspected to belong to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the criminal activity on Friday, said the suspect was arrested on Thursday around 4pm at Candos Road, Baruwa in Iyana-Ipaja area of the state.

He said the suspect was arrested inside a business centre where she was making the photocopies.

“She was arrested with 550 different INEC materials.

“The laptop she used in printing the materials had been recovered and she couldn’t give a good account of how she came in possession of the materials.

“The case has been transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba for further investigation,” he said.

According to authorities, a bus crashed over a highway fence and into a roadside ditch on Sunday in Bangladesh, killing at least 17 and injuring up to 25.

The bus fell 30 feet (10 meters) into the ditch at 8:00 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to the police, who believe the driver lost control and hit the railing of a recently constructed major expressway.

“Seventeen people have died in the accident. The injured were sent to hospitals in the region,” local police chief Masud Alam told AFP after the crash in the southern district of Shibchar.

Bangladesh has a high rate of traffic accidents because of the country’s outdated, poorly maintained roadways, as well as its underqualified drivers.

9,951 fatalities in road accidents were a record in Bangladesh last year, according to a highway accident monitor.

Chisom Lennard, the APC campaign coordinator in Rivers State’s Ahoada-West Local Government Area, was killed by gunmen hours after being kidnapped.

At Ibagwa polling unit 2 ward 10 in Ahoada West LGA, where voting for the gubernatorial and state House of Assembly elections was taking place, Lennard was reportedly abducted by gunmen wearing police uniforms.

According to reports, the APC leader attempted to stop the gunmen from stealing poll equipment before being abducted.

The incidence was reported by Darlington Nwauju, the State APC Publicity Secretary.

Nwauju stated, “He was abducted from his polling unit during the voting process and taken away.

“Nobody knew where they took him to. It was later in the evening of Saturday that his body was discovered.

“He was APC LGA caretaker chairman and was a PhD student at the Rivers State University.”

Along the Ibueahi-Ubeta road in the Ahoada+West LGA of the state, late Lennard’s body was found covered in his own blood and covered in gunshot wounds.

During Rotimi Amaechi’s administration, the late APC leader served as a board member of the Greater Port Harcourt City Development Board and an estate surveyor.

Olufemi Ajadi, the New Nigeria Peoples Party’s candidate for governor in Ogun State, has pledged that the party will file a lawsuit against the Independent National Election Commission for failing to include the party’s name on the ballots.

Ajadi voiced concern that only the party’s logo was on the ballot paper, but the name was glaringly absent, shortly after casting his vote at Ofada in the state’s Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area.

Ajadi said, “We can’t see security everywhere. In my polling unit, the APC gathered thugs to attack me. I’m so disappointed.

“They were dragging guns with my security. This is not an election.

“On the ballot paper, I can’t see my party, the NNPP. We wrote to INEC to make amendment after the initial election.

“Today, we can’t find our party’s name on the ballot paper, only the logo. It’s so disappointing.

“By the grace of God, we are going to court to challenge INEC on why our party’s name was omitted on the ballot paper.

Asked if he had confidence in INEC, he responded, “I don’t have confidence in INEC. They have disappointed Nigerians. It’s a total disappointment.”

The governor of Ekiti State, Biodun Oyebanji, bragged on Saturday that the election for the 26 seats in the Ekiti State House of Assembly would be won by the ruling All Progressive Party (APC).

He just expressed his displeasure with the low voter participation for the election at the time.

Soon after casting his ballot in Ward 6, Unit 3, Okelele at his rural residence of Ikogosi-Ekiti, in the Ekiti West Local Government Area of the State, Oyebanji made the observation.

The governor expressed his sadness that voter turnout was not as high as it had been in the state’s previous presidential election.

Yet he praised the National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) for improving the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), saying it had significantly improved the electoral process.

“So far so good, I just cast my vote and using my Ward as an example on the improvement on INEC technology.

“I think we have to commend the Federal Government and more importantly, the INEC for the remarkable improvement on the technology deployed, as well as the entire exercise.

“The deployment of the new technology will no doubt help to improve on the exercise through management of time and energy,” he said.

With the use of technical innovation to assure legitimate elections, the process was determined to be credible.

Many voters at the numerous polling places that were visited throughout the town expressed their happiness at being able to exercise their right to vote and praised the orderly process.

The governorship and house of assembly elections scheduled for this Saturday in 10 voting places in the state’s Victoria Garden City, Lekki region have been postponed by the independent national electoral commission.

Segun Agbaje, the Lagos State resident electoral commissioner for INEC, made this statement to media on Saturday at the VGC.

Members of the National Youth Service Corps who had been stationed in the region as temporary workers, according to Agbaje, were reluctant to approach the VGC estate since they claimed to have been kept captive during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Agbaje claimed that the ad hoc staff had instead set up voting materials outside the estate, but the residents claimed that they were unable to vote because they did not feel comfortable and were worried about hoodlums invading and interfering with the election.

He claimed that the current security personnel were unable to handle the situation, therefore he and his crew had to go to the location.

“We have eight polling units here with 6,024 registered voters and out of which 5,624 people have their PVCs,” Agbaje stated.

He claimed that the current security personnel were unable to handle the situation, therefore he and his crew had to go to the location.

“Eight here (in the estate) and two outside,” he said.

“After due consultation and further directive from the national headquarters that we should remobilise here tomorrow (Sunday) morning by 8:30am to conduct the elections, by 8:30am tomorrow (Sunday) we will reconvene here.”

He claimed that the current security personnel were unable to handle the situation, therefore he and his crew had to go to the location.

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Bashir Nasiru Aliko, the managing director of the state-owned transport company, was detained by Kano State Police Command agents for allegedly interfering with elections and stealing ballot boxes.

The head of Kano Line was detained along with six other people.

The arrest happened in the state’s Dala Local Government Area’s Gwammaja neighborhood.

On Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed that 19 of its ad hoc staff members had been abducted while traveling to the Ideato South Local Government Area of Imo to conduct the House of Assembly election.

Prof. Sylvia Agu, the resident electoral commissioner for Imo at INEC, made this announcement in a statement on Saturday in Owerri.

However, they were reportedly freed after security personnel intervened, but election supplies, including BVAS machines, remain missing.

Agu stated; “The attention of the commission has been drawn to a report from Ugbelle Registration Area (06) in Ideato South Local Government Area of Imo state where thugs carted away all electoral materials and took our staff hostage for some hours during the March 18 House of Assembly election.

“The security forces were informed and a rescue operation was mounted.

“Presently, all ad hoc staff on hostage have been rescued but no trace of the election materials.

“While the commission remains grateful to the security operatives, it condemns such acts of thuggery, intimidation and disenfranchisement of voters and urge the public to continue to have confidence in the electoral process,” Agu stated.

The REC said a full statement on the matter will be issued later.

On Saturday morning, thugs raided a few voting places in the Ajiran neighborhood of the Agungi, Lekki, and Eti-Osa Local Government Area in Lagos State, stealing vote boxes.

The hoodlums attacked PU 108, PU 007, PU 028, and other nearby PUs, according report.

Our correspondent also noted that a large number of residents returned to their houses out of fear for their safety after the attack, which caused a sharp decline in voter turnout in the neighborhood.

A residents who was assaulted and flogged by the thugs while having blood drip down his head claimed that he felt scared while trying to cast his ballot.

Speaking under the condition of anonymity out of concern for harassment, he told our correspondent, “I was trying to vote when the thugs broke into my polling place. If I don’t vote for the APC (All Progressives Congress), they claimed, I can’t cast my ballot. They began beating and whipping me.

Approximately 20 hoodlums entered the neighborhood, and it was learned that they were made up of both male and female members.

Another resident, identified as Bayo, said, “The violence broke out between 9am and 10 am. The number of voters that came out during the presidential election in our area has dropped significantly. We are still calling our people around to come out and vote as the military has arrived and things have settled now.”

According to reports, the hoodlums slapped the chairman of one of the local estates when he attempted to reason with them and ask them to quit intimidating and threatening the voters.

As at the time this report was sent, three military vans carrying armed soldiers had reached the scene, and order had been reinstated.

Two security officers named Nura Sufyanu and Kabir Ali, as well as Adamu Ali, the nephew of Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari, died in a horrifying car accident.

The incident happened on Friday night in the state’s Musawa Local Government Area in the village of Gadar Tsuntsaye.

According to other sources, the fatalities and other people were en route to the governor’s hometown of Kafur for the governorship and State House of Assembly elections on Saturday.

The sources stated that the area’s poor road conditions were to blame for the disaster.

One of the sources said, “The victims were about to get to a bridge in the area on Friday night when they ran into bad portions of the road which forced the vehicle they were traveling in to skip and somersault, leading to their deaths.”

Before being sent to the Federal Teaching Hospital in Katsina, three other accident victims received first medical attention at the General Hospital in Malumfashi.

The police official reported that the bodies of the victims had been transported from the scene to a morgue in Katsina, and preparations for their burial had already started on Saturday.

The police spokesman said, “The accident happened on Friday night. The victims were going to Kafur, the governor’s hometown for the governorship and State House of Assembly elections. We have evacuated the bodies of the victims to Katsina.”