Delta PDP Chairman Slaps Election Official As Police Fire Gunshots To Disrupt Primary

The state party chairman, who is said to be supporting the federal lawmaker, slapped one of the officials conducting the primary. At this point, pandemonium broke out, which led to the disruption of the exercise, and security agents began shooting sporadically.

There was pandemonium in Asaba, the Delta State capital, on Wednesday following sporadic shootings by armed policemen during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary for Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency, held at the Cenotaph.

Trouble started on Wednesday, when Mrs. Mrakpor, wife of the Delta State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, and the PDP state chairman, Kingsley Esiso, disrupted the exercise when the federal lawmaker saw that she was losing out in the primary to former member of the House of Representatives, Ndidi Elumelu.

Our correspondent, who monitored the primary election, observed that Mrakpor left her seat, went straight to the spot where collation of results was going on and began to challenge the party officials conducting the primary.

As the situation became more heated, security operatives attached to the federal lawmaker fired several shots into the air, and in the process, the lawmaker's husband and the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Peter Mrakpor, who was at the venue of the exercise, put a call across to Esiso, who thereafter arrived the venue in his car.

On arrival, the state party chairman, who is said to be supporting the federal lawmaker, slapped one of the officials conducting the primary. At this point, pandemonium broke out, which led to the disruption of the exercise, and security agents began shooting sporadically. Policemen also fired tear gas canisters into the crowd.

As the crisis was raging, Mrakpor was arrested and taken to the state Police Command, where the state Commissioner of Police, Muhammed Mustafa, intervened and the counting process of the votes was concluded in the premises of the police headquarters. 

Eventually, the former federal lawmaker and younger brother of the chairman of United Bank for Africa, Mr. Ndidi Elumelu emerged the PDP candidate for the Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency in the 2019 general election.