- Safiu Kehinde
Police operatives have allegedly dispersed voters with teargas as ballot papers went missing at AU Suleiman Polling Unit 003 in Abaji Area Council in Abuja.
Clash reportedly ensued at the polling unit after the voting exercise in the ongoing 2026 FCT Council Election was stalled over alleged theft of the ballot papers by a yet-to-be identified man.
As captured in a live broadcast shared on X on Saturday by News Central TV, the voters and party agents stood outside the building assigned as the polling unit.
Tension erupted as some party agents challenged a News Central journalist covering the election after approaching an agent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for interview.
While throwing blames against one other, one of the party agents who failed to introduce himself accused the PDP of orchestrating the theft during the after clash erupted after the PDP agent of an official of Abaji Area Council who came to greet the voters.
“The election is going peacefully. Then the chairman came here to greet everybody. Then this guy (PDP party agent) started embarassing the chairman. That is why the election scattered.
“When the fight started, you can’t say this is the person that took the ballot paper. The ballot paper got missing just like that.
“But as the we assumed-we are not even saying maybe, it was the people from PDP that did this thing.” The agent said.
Reacting to the allegation, the PDP agent, who identified himself as Bala Abubakar, admitted challenging the council official.
Abubakar said the official had refused to identify himself after walking into the polling unit with security escort.
His faceoff with the official tend to have incited the clash which, according to Abubakar, led to the INEC official in charge of the ballot papers leaving the materials.
The PDP agent held that the ballot papers was stolen during the process by unidentified individuals.
“Our election was moving successfully here. Unfortunately, someone came in- a fair guy with security personnel at his back.
“I asked him please who are you? You came into the election venue where people are voting.
“I asked him can you identify yourself? He said he is a local government agent. I said where is your means of identification.
“He could not provide. I told him to leave here if he could not provide his means of identification. That’s when the crisis occurred.
“The security personnel fire teargas and unfortunately, everybody was running. Then the person in charge of the ballot paper left it and it went missing.”Abubakar said.