#AnambraDecides: No election in Ihiala LGA, says collation officer
Ahmadu Umar, the collation officer for Ihiala LGA, says the Anambra governorship election did not hold in his area.
Umar, who disclosed this on Sunday while making a presentation after the result for Aguata LGA was declared, didn’t state why there was no election in Ihiala LGA.
He said there are 148,407 registered voters in the LGA, adding that election didn’t take place in Ihiala.
TheCable had reported that election officials in some polling units in the LGA reported being attacked by hoodlums, after which elections in those units were suspended.
A National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, serving as an election official, said some of the hoodlums who attacked claimed to be enforcing a sit-at-home directive by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“We were blocked on our way to the polling units in Okija community. We met some hoodlums who barricaded the roads, saying we can’t go for the election. They also said they were not interested in election as long as there is sit-at-home order,” the corps member, who preferred to remain anonymous, said.
However, IPOB had cancelled the order on Thursday, and encouraged Anambra residents to participate in the election.
The group had also warned supporters against attacking voters in Anambra under the guise of enforcing the suspended sit-at-home directive.
Also, another INEC ad hoc official, who identified herself as Comfort, said hoodlums accused staff of the electoral body of planning to rig the election, while another corps member, who identified himself as Peter, said lateness to the polling units led to attacks in some areas.
Where were the security officers when all these were happening? How possible election did not hold in the whole local government? This is a planned work to scuttle the election result. INEC should not allow this to sabotage it’s efforts and credibility in this election. It should go ahead and announce the winner because going by the voting trend in the election, less than 15% of the registered voters actually voted in the election. Judging by this, the marging is far more than 15% of the registered voters from both outstanding local government i.e Orumba and Ihiala. So, INEC should live above the board and be fair enough to declare the winner. It will be unfair and very dangerous to declare this election inconclusive which has almost become INEC habit in the recent time. God bless Nigeria.