*Two illegal voters’ registers recovered, six persons nabbed

By Samuel Oyadongha
Security operatives in Bayelsa State, Wednesday, swooped on two illegal voters register at private apartments in Yenagoa, the state capital and recovered three diverted Direct Data Capturing machines.

Six suspects among them a serving councilor in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, two corps members and a chief were apprehended.

The arrest of the suspects and recovery of the three DDC machines by men of the State Security Services, SSS,  is coming on the heels of the alarm raised Tuesday, by the campaign organisation of Timi Alaibe, the Labour Party governorship candidate in the state over an alleged plot by certain persons to skew the on-going voters registration exercise in the state.

The recovery of the machines in two separate operations by men of the SSS and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, followed a tip off from members of the public.

The machines, which were reportedly recovered at the compound of one Chief Jobs at Kpansia and residence of Brigidi on Baybridge Road, Kpansia were meant for communities in Southern Ijaw council.

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Engr. Edwin  Nwatalari, who confirmed the smashing of the syndicate to newsmen in Yenagoa, said the suspects who were nabbed in two separate operations by security operatives are presently cooling their heels in SSS custody.

He described the diversion of INEC DDC machines to unauthorised locations for use as effort in futility, saying information feed into its illegally diverted machines cannot be transferred to  INEC database.