IGP, INEC Chairman teargassed in Lokoja

Dignitaries, including the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, along with National Commissioners of the INEC were on Tuesday teargassed while policemen were trying to put down an uproar.

The stakeholders’ meeting/signing of peace accord among political parties and candidates, organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), with senior police officers and loads of their well-armed men on standby, was almost disrupted when those suspected to be thugs of the ruling party, used force to prevent the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Natasha Akpoti, from entering the venue of the event.

It was a rowdy situation for close to twenty minutes at the main entrance of the event’s venue, where the two groups (those who wanted to bring the candidate in and those trying to prevent her entrance) struggled to gain control of the entrance.

However, as neither of the two groups yielded ground and would not listen to entreaties from security agents, policemen on guard duty fired a couple of teargas cans to disperse the contending groups, at the door. The effect of the teargas spread into the event’s hall, affecting all occupants, including the IGP, who was seen covering his nose.

However, while the fight was on and the whole place was in commotion, the INEC continued with the business of conducting the peace accord signing, to which 17 political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition parties, led by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).