Naval men kill one in Ondo, recover ballot boxes

Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin

Men of the Nigerian Navy on Saturday shot dead one of the hoodlums who disrupted the House of Assembly election in Ilaje and the coastal communities of Ondo State.

Two other suspects were also arrested and handed over to the police for further investigation.

A Naval officer, who would not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press, said the hoodlums opened fire on a naval patrol team as they patrolled the waterways.

He said the officers replied the fire and killed one of the hoodlums, recovering seven pump action guns, ammunition and ballot boxes from them.

“We returned fire and one of them was killed and the rest abandoned their guns and ran into the bush. We succeeded in arresting two of them and they have been handed over to the police,” he said.

Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, who confirmed the incident, said the Commanding Officer of the naval command in the state called him late on Saturday and informed him of the development.

He said, “They moved into the sea and to some difficult areas and they were able to make some arrests.”

Agbaje said five ballot boxes belonging to the INEC and six cell phones belonging to some of the ad hoc staff were recovered.

Efforts to get the Police Public Relations Officer, Wole Ogodo, to speak on the issue were not successful. Text messages sent to his phone were also not responded to.