From John Adams, Minna
Three delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Mariga Local Government Area of Niger have been killed by gunmen on the way to the state capital for the gubernatorial primary.
Chairman of the gubernatorial Electoral Committee and Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, confirmed the killing shortly before the commencement of the rescheduled party primary in Minna.
“Delegates were killed while returning from Mariga after they had gone to obtain their means of identification following postponement of the primary due to a protest by some of the aspirants who insisted every delegate must show a means of identification apart from the party membership card before voting.
“They were thereafter asked to go and bring their means of identification to authenticate their names, forcing the electoral committee to shift the primary to yesterday.
“The victims were, however, substituted to complete the number of delegates from the local government.”
But one of the delegates from Mariga, Shehu Haruna, told Daily Sun that the incident happened between Mariga and Tegina and four people were killed in the attack.
He said: “We left Minna in the late hours when PDP postponed the governorship primary to yesterday (Thursday), and that we should go and bring our voters’ cards or any means of identification. We were retuning from home where we had gone to get our means of identification and on the road, we ran into bandits who opened fire on our vehicle from different directions.
“Though, we were able to escape the scene since the driver was not hit by bullet, four people, however, died instantly in the vehicle.”
He said the local government which shares border with Birnin-Gwari in Kaduna State has been under siege from gunmen who terrorised the area with impunity.”
Haruna called for permanent security operatives in the area to safeguard travellers and communities.
Chairman of the party in the state, Tanko Beji, who condemned the killing of the party members, described the incident as unfortunate.
He called on the state government to live up to It responsibility of protecting the lives and property of citizens, especially at this period of elections in the country where Nigerians are expected to move around for campaign and other electoral activities.