Kaduna LG Election: Stray Bullet Kills 9-Year-Old Girl

Kaduna LG Election: Stray Bullet Kills 9-Year-Old Girl

September 5, 2021

TRAGEDY struck in Makarfi Local Government Area of Kaduna State during the local government polls when a stray bullet killed a nine-year-old Zainab Bala-Umar at Gwanki ward. Sunday Tribune gathered that the incident happened at Gwanki ward when the Nigerian army officers tried to disperse a crowd. 

Narrating the incident, Yahaya Gwanki said a former chairman of Makarfi Local Government who is also the APC candidate in the election invited some soldiers to control the crowd. Gwanki said ‘the APC candidate had gone to one of the polling units under Fadamar Gwanki and while having a conversation with an electoral officer over some challenges of the e-voting machine, some youths had to start to shout, ‘ba ma so, ba ma so” meaning “we don’t want.” 

The soldiers then began to shoot in the air and in the process, the girl was hit and died,” Gwanki said. 

Reacting to the development, the Police Public Relations Officer of the command, ASP Mohammed Jalige said military personnel were not allowed to be at the polling units. 

He affirmed that the police would arrest the culprits, investigate and brief the press later. Meanwhile, there were reports that about 41 e-voting machines were snatched by hoodlums during the election. 

Confirming the incident chairperson of Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIECOM), Mrs Saratu Audu-Dikko told newsmen on Saturday that the machines were snatched in Giwa and Igabi Local Government Areas. 

According to her, this figure excludes EVMs destroyed by same people during the elections. 

“Thirty EVMs were carted away at Kwarau in Igabi Local Government, with two destroyed, while nine others at Panhauya in Giwa Local Government, were equally vandalised. 

“The hoodlums also carted away election materials and assaulted the driver and staff of the Commission conveying the materials,” she explained. 

The chairman added that some other members of staff of the commission, including the ad hoc, were assaulted in those places. Sunday Tribune gathered that by 10 am, most of the polling units visited were experiencing low turnout of voters. 

At some other polling units where there were few voters on the queue, election materials did not arrive until past 10 am. Also, at polling booth 011 located in Queen Amina College, Kakuri, the only voting machine there failed to function. 

A SIECOM ad hoc staff who pleaded anonymity expressed his frustration over the machine saying he could not capture a single accreditation or voter since 10am when he and other officials reported for duty. 

However, the situation was slightly different at units 005, 006, 007, among other polling booths around the Kakuri suburb visited by Sunday Tribune where the machines operated optimally. 

Meanwhile, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has said it would not accept the outcome of the local government elections in the state. 

In a press conference in Kaduna on Saturday, the party’s publicity secretary, Abraham Catoh, and another party stalwart, Dr Abdulrahaman Usman, noted that the election was full of irregularities. 

The opposition party alleged that the electoral commission had set the electronic machines in favour of the ruling APC and would therefore not accept the results of an election riddled with mistakes.