>
The collation officer for Ihiala Local Government Area in the ongoing Anambra State governorship election ,Ahmadu Umar, has said election did not hold in the local government.
Umar, who disclosed this on Sunday while making a presentation after the result for Aguata Local Government Area was declared, however didn’t state why there was no election in Ihiala Local Government Area.
He said there are 148,407 registered voters in the local government.
Election officials in some polling units in the local government has earlier alleged that they were attacked by hoodlums, after which elections in pulling units were suspended.
A corps member, serving as an election official, said some of the hoodlums who attacked them claimed to be enforcing a sit-at-home directive by the proscribed 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.
However, IPOB had on Friday announced the cancellation of the sit-at-home order 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.
Similarly, Gabriel Othong, the collation officer for Idemili South Local Government Area, says 41 result sheets for some polling units were carted away.
Othong disclosed this on Sunday while submitting results for the local government.
He said the result sheets of the affected areas were taken away by the supervisory presiding officer (SPO) posted to the area.
He also said there was no election in Oba ward I, Oba ward II and Akukwu ward, all in Idemili South Local Government.
“One of the SPOs carted 41 result sheets out of the 42 result sheets meant for the 89 polling units in the affected wards.
“Over 40,000 voters were not able to vote in the affected areas due to the development,”Othong said.
The collation officer added that election officials were not deployed to some of the polling units due to shooting in some areas.
Ebere Obiakor, the agent for the All Progressives Congress (APC) said there was election in the affected areas but the results were not collated.
But Alex Obiogbolu, collation agent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Victor Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), countered Obiakor’s statement, saying there was no election in any of the affected places.
Meanwhile, the result for the top three parties released for Idemili south are as follows: APC: 1,036; APGA: 2,312, and PDP: 2,016.
As of the time of filing this report, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced results of 12 out of the 21 local governments in the state, and the APGA candidate, Chukwuma Soludo has won in 11 local government areas.