25th January, 2011
A man, Ganiyu Ahmed, has been arrested and charged to Ejigbo Magistrate’s Court for allegedly smashing INEC Direct Data Capture, DDC, machine after several futile attempts to register at Shasha, a suburb of Lagos, South West Nigeria.
Ganiyu was alleged to have grabbed a printing machine and smashed it on the ground after queuing for several hours without being able to register.
The incident happened yesterday at 25, Igbehinadun Street, Shasha, where he had gone to register.
P.M.NEWS gathered that Ganiyu had made several attempts to get registered but he couldn’t do so because of the slow pace of the exercise.
It was learnt that he had woken up very early in the morning to get a number so as to be able to register to vote during the forthcoming election. All his attempts failed because of the faulty machine.
After smashing the machine, he was arrested by the police at Shasha division and charged to court for willful damage.
Part of the charge reads: “That you, the defendant, on the same date, time and place, did willfully damage a DDC printing machine belonging to INEC.â€
The offence is said to be contrary to section 458 of the Criminal Code Cap 17 Vol. 2, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2003.
There was a drama at the court when he was about to be arraigned.
His parents informed the court officials that the man was insane.
Consequently, the presiding magistrate, Mrs. S.O. Solebo ordered that he be taken to the psychiatric hospital in Yaba for mental evaluation.
—Cyriacus Izuekwe
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