The re-run polls in Ikono/Ini and Abak Federal Constituencies of Akwa Ibom State which were rescheduled for Saturday has again been married by violence with no fewer than six persons including a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member serving as ad-hoc members of staff among those shot and critically injured.
The incumbent House of Representatives member for Ikono/Ini, Mr. Emmanuel Ukpong Udo, who left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to pick the Young Peoples Party (YPP) ticket slugged it out with Glory Edet of the PDP in the re-run poll.
It was gathered that out of the 17 units the polls were re-conducted in Ikono/Ini, materials in no fewer than seven units were hijacked by armed security agents said to be loyal to the ruling PDP, with a corps member and others who showed resistance shot in the process.
Voting was largely peaceful in most of the poling units but it was gathered that violence erupted around the Registration Area Centre (RAC) and a few voting units soon after voting, as armed hoodlums backed by security agents, seized the ballot materials amid sporadic shooting and injury to dozens of voters and officials.
Incumbent Ukpong Udo led Edet of the PDP with the margin of 4,161 before INEC declared the election inconclusive and ordered a re-run.
In Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency, Clement Jimbo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led the incumbent lawmaker, Aniekan Umanah, with 2,962 votes margin, before desperation and violence by supporters who reportedly resorted to hijacking of ballot materials and random shooting of resisting officials of INEC and opposition supporters.
Meanwhile, INEC has cancelled the re-run election in the affected areas.
Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Cyril Omorogbe, who announced the cancellation on Saturday, described the rerun as abysmal.
Omorogbe based the cancellation of the elections in all the 17 polling units that participated in the rerun to incidences of electoral materials and Bi-Modal Voters Accreditation Machine System (BIVAS) snatching.
