Catastrophe broke out on Thursday, April 9, 2015, within the environs of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Asaba in Delta State when a driver working for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was caught with electoral materials for Saturday, April 11, 2015 polls.
Pandemonium struck when the driver (names withheld) arrived the CBN office where sensitive materials were being sorted out to council headquarters and informed the Electoral Officer that before his vehicle is loaded with the materials, he needed to refill his fuel tank.
But as he was driving out, loyalists of some political parties suspected his movement and apprehended him, allegedly forcing the vehicle open in the process of interrogation and discovered to their chagrin that election materials were already in the vehicle.
An eyewitness said the vehicle was vandalized by the mob who accused the driver of attempting to make away with the materials.
Public Relations Officer of the state police command, DSP Celestina Kalu confirmed the incident, adding that the driver and the vehicle were in police custody while matter was under investigation.
A source in the Asaba office of INEC also confirmed the development but insisted that the suspect was wrongly accused as the said vehicle was yet to be loaded with sensitive materials at the time he was apprehended.
According to the source, the driver had left INEC office with the content of non-sensitive materials including card readers and registers to the CBN office to pick the sensitive materials.
“What happened is that the driver came in from INEC office and informed the Electoral Officer that prior to the loading of the materials, he would go and refill his tank. He was going to refill his tank when he was accosted.
“As usual, he was carrying non-sensitive materials including card readers and registers because they have been with us at INEC. So it is nothing serious because those materials can be reproduced by our IT department.”
