BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Some hoodlums suspected to be political thugs on Saturday stormed Idi-Ogungun polling unit in Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State and carted away thump-printed ballot papers.
They were also said to have attacked Eleesun and Odebudo communities in the council area and disrupted electoral process.
The thugs reportedly invaded the area around 3:04pm when sorting and counting of votes were ongoing, shot sporadically into the air to scare the electorate as officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) narrowly escaped death.
Eyewitness account revealed that the attackers who arrived the affected polling units in full force sent the entire community into panic as the atmosphere was rented with gunshots before they eventually took away the ballot boxes.
Sources said majority of the attackers came on motorcycles to the polling units while others were in a no-plate-number Sienna bus.
“It is unfortunate that these people were hell-bent to ruin the state with several attacks being launched on the people of the state in the last few months.
“It was God that saved me. I was very close to the attacked polling units. I saw the whole thing. They came in large number and started shooting sporadically into the air to scare people as everyone scampered for safety.
“They snatched and took away the ballot boxes in the affected polling units. Though they started the operation at Idi Ogungun, an outskirts of Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area and later moved to Eleesun and Odebudo, two of the popular communities in the council.
“When they successfully ransacked the first polling unit, they swiftly moved to the next polling unit which is a close by distance where another ballot boxes were carted away.
“I was told that a team of police came to repel the attacks and eventually got two of the hoodlums apprehended”, he added.
It was reported that the suspects were taken to the Iragbiji Police Headquarters for interrogation.
