I Went Out To Vote and Ended Up Going Viral

Written by Tezor Dedam

Tonia is a businesswoman, a safety and first-aid officer at an oil-servicing company, and a passionate Nigerian citizen. In March 2023, during the state governorship elections, this passion was put on centre stage when police officers invaded her polling unit to hijack ballot boxes. Tonia caught the entire event on camera. This is Tonia’s story, as told to Tezor Dedam.

It all started in March 2023, at the polling unit situated at Holy Family Catholic Church, Woji, Port Harcourt, during the governorship election. On that fateful day, we had all cast our votes, and it was time for counting. Suddenly, we saw a Hilux and a Sienna pull up, driving quickly right into the compound and parking directly in front of us.

At the time, we were already hearing reports that other polling units were being attacked by unknown people, so seeing them appear out of nowhere made evryone tensed. Some people stood far away, and some were close by. I was among those who stood around. Their arrival was abrupt, but I noticed the workers (INEC officials) did not run; they stood their ground.

That was when I immediately turned on my video and started recording. I just held my phone close to my chest, so no one would really know that I was making a video. In that moment, one of the men who had arrived then started instructing them,

“Carry the box!”

“They should take everything and move, take it into the car!”

Then people started to lightly protest, asking “Where are you taking our boxes to?”

Throughout all of this, I was still recording. One of the police men then walked past me and noticed I was making a video. He walked past the first time, then he walked past again and grabbed my phone.

Meanwhile, I could see that the Sienna was still parked there, filled with young men who didnt look like police officers but had come with them. After the officer grabbed my phone, I started shouting, “Give me my phone, give me my phone!” I followed them and kept shouting. 

When people saw that I was unafraid and making a stand, they joined in: “Give her her phone!” I think that overwhelmed the officer; he didn’t see that coming. And God so kind, the video was still on, and I then dragged my phone from him. 

He entered the vehicle with the polling boxes and one of the men from the accompanying Sienna came from behind and pointed at me, saying, “You, I will kill you”. He repeated this a few more times. He then got into the Sienna as they drove off with the police.

I remember saying to myself that I had their plate number. And that was how they left with their boxes. Fortunately, people started coming back to ask for the video and sharing it on social media. Over the next few days, I had gotten calls and messages from people saying that they had seen my video and heard my voice. I started seeing it get reposted on major channels and on media stories, that was pretty much how that unfortunate incident made me go viral.