Poll Officials Escape Lynching In Anambra

Anxious voters almost lynched electoral officials at Umunankwo/ Mputu ward in Ogbaru local government area of Anambra State for arriving late to the polling unit.Leadership Sunday gathered that the poll officials arrived the centre at about 12:30pm without result sheets for two polling units. One of the officials for the centre, Mr. Ignatius Onyejekwe, stated that he escaped the wrath of the voters along with other ad hoc staff by the whiskers.

Narrating his ordeal to the electoral officer, he stated that the voters were angry because they could not find voting materials for two polling units there and the presiding officials.As at 3:30pm, INEC officials hadn’t arrived Obeagwe, Akili-Ogidi and Ogwuikpele communities in Ogbaru riverine area because of the difficult terrain owing to rain fall that occurred the previous night. The electoral officials were said to have refused entering a flying boat to access the three communities.
Meanwhile, though the elections witnessed massive turnout of voters in the state, late commencement of accreditation of voters and malfunctioning of the card readers characterised the conduct of the polls in many centres in the state. In polling centres in different parts of the three senatorial zones of the state, hundreds of intending voters besieged the polling units as early as 7:30am but there were no INEC officials to attend to them. In some polling centres, electoral officials even arrived without some necessary polling materials.
In many polling units in Aguata local government area, there were reports of large scale malfunctioning of the card readers and in some places there were no card readers at all.
As at 10:48pm in Oraifite ward 3, Ekwusigo local government local government, card readers distributed to the polling units were not functional. Those distributed to Awo Central School polling unit, Oraifite were also not functional. Electoral officials told anxious voters at about 11:57am that if after one hour, solution did not come from their superiors in Awka, they will start accrediting them manually.
Also, Ernest Eze, an intending voter at Umudim voting centre, Nnewi said INEC officials told them that the card readers were not working and that they were waiting for instruction from their superiors in Awka before they could resort to the use of manual accreditation, using the index INEC form.
At about 11:10am, voters at Nawgu Ward Two, Dunukofia local government complained they could not undergo accreditation because card readers were not functioning. Similar situation was reported at Osumenyi ward 7, Nnewi-South LGA as at 11:37am.