Confusion, anger trail election
From CHIDI NNADI, MODESTUS UWALAKA, WILLY EYA, GEOFFREY ANYANWU, VINCENT KALU, DAVID ONWUCHEKWA and NWABUEZE OKONKWO, Anambra
Sunday, February 7, 2010

Crowd at the polling booth

What would have been the most peaceful election in the history of Anambra State was yesterday marred by electoral irregularities as most of the electorate who turned out to vote were disappointed as their names were not found in the voters’ register.
Signs that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not do its homework well on the Anambra election started showing when the voters trooped out about 8am to discover that the electoral materials have not been brought to the polling stations.

Consequently, the election could not commence in most of the polling stations in the state until noon, leading to voting ending beyond 4pm as stipulated by INEC in most places. By INEC’s regulation, voting was expected to begin at 8am and expected to end at 4pm.
In most of the polling stations visited by our correspondents, the local people who had come out en masse to vote for their preferred candidates were seen wearing long faces as the voters’ registers had only foreign names instead of theirs.

Also, some of the major candidates in the election who spoke to reporters expressed dismay, saying INEC had messed up the Anambra election.
For the enthusiastic voters, their spirit melted as they entered into a very long wait, which ended in disappointment in most places.
All the wards visited in Anaocha, Njikoka, Idemili North and South, Nnewi North and South, the people complained about the INEC register, saying that they do not have the names of the local people, but alien names, some of them Hausa and Yoruba.
At 9:45a.m in Agulu Ward 3, Community Primary School, voters were seen waiting for the INEC officials and materials just like in Agulu Ward 2, Amatutu Village, which is about two poles away from Governor Peter Obi’s home.

At Adazi-Nnukwu Ward 2, the voters complained that they had been around since 8am, but were yet to vote at 10:05am as the materials were still being distributed to the polling units.
At the Anaocha local government headquarters, policemen that were supposed to guard the polling units were still at the council at 10:30am trying to board their vehicles.
When Sunday Sun got to Alor Community in Idemili South, the home of the Action Congress (AC) candidate, Dr Chris Ngige, there was no sign of materials and officials in any of the wards at 10:45am.
The people who turned out in their large numbers vowed to remain there until they cast their votes.
At 11.25am at Uga Boys Secondary School, Uga Ward 2, the home of Labour Party candidate, Dr Andy Uba, the voters patiently waited but complained bitterly about non-arrival of materials and INEC officials, as only three youth corps members were there on the side of the officials.

One of the angry voters asked Sunday Sun whether the time for the election had been changed, but vowed: “If they like, let them come by midnight, we will wait for them here.”
There was a large and overwhelming number of voters at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Uga, about 11:40am, but they also complained of absence of the INEC officials and materials.
In Amichi Ward 3, where voting started by 12 noon, only one out of the three polling units in Iseke Ndida Hall had the names of registered voters there.

Over 100 persons at the scene and who were supposed to vote at Units 008 and 009 could not find their names in the register.
They complained that the names in the register were not those of the community people. One of them said: “The register they brought bears our village name and code, but the names in it are not that of our people.”
At Dimala Village Hall, Osumenyi Ward 2, Unit 012, one of the contenders and standard-bearer of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, voted with his wife at 1.20pm.
In the same Osumenyi, a former commissioner in Governor Obi’s government was said to have been manhandled by suspected thugs of one of the candidates in the election with stronghold in the area.
The standard bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, voted about 1pm at Amaorji Primary School, Isuofia, and was the third person to vote as voting started in his area at 12.50pm.
But, Soludo’s Director, Media and Publicity, Mr. Christian Udechukwu, complained of late arrival of materials and the people not finding their names in the register.

However, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Josiah Uwazuronye, who had earlier told newsmen that INEC was fully prepared, witnessed the confusion at the Awka South INEC secretariat where he spent close to two hours before returning to his office around 1:15pm.
INEC Director of Public Affairs, Mr Emmanuel Umenger, said the delay was caused by the need to maintain law and order.
He said policemen on duty were barred at Nnewi while in some places INEC officials were not allowed to move.
“It was not a logistics problem as such; it was security problem. Police could not allow the unveiling of the materials because of the situation.
“I have not received any report that things went awry except in the places I told you,” he said.
On the alleged disenfranchisement of many voters, he absolved INEC from it, saying, “the commission stated clearly during the stakeholders’ meeting that there were attempts by political actors to block the voters register with fictitious names.
“People are expected to vote where they registered. If they have a card that doesn’t bear the code of their station, they have no business being there.”

At the ward 2 in Awka South, there were supposed to be three polling units, 04, 05 and 09, but at the time of the visit by newsmen, it was only polling unit 04 that voting was taking place.
A retired Chief Consultant Surgeon, Dr Chinwuba, who spoke to newsmen, accused some people of deliberately trying to deny the people their right to vote.
Information and Communication Minister, Prof. Dora Akunyili, who spoke to newsmen at the INEC office in Awka, said the election went on smoothly, but she confirmed that there were hiccups here and there.
Akunyili, who arrived at the INEC office, accompanied by her husband about 3.45p.m, however, confirmed that there were some areas where voting was yet to take place at the time of her visit.

‘Foreign names’ in voters register
Across the state, there were reports of irregularities, which have put a question mark on whoever is eventually declared winner.
In Nnewi North and Nnewi South, most of the names in the voters register were foreign to the area. At most poling units, there were willing voters but their names were not in the register although the number on their cards tallied with that in the register.
The most glaring was at Ebenasa ward 3 in Amichi, Nnewi South Council, where no indigene of the community was among the 10,000 names in the voters register. The first five pages had “Ama” as the surname. The community does not answer Ama.
Another four pages in the register have names that started with “Mpama,” which means idiot in the local parlance. This was replicated in some other wards in Amichi.

Former chairman of the Police Service Commission, Chief Simeon Okeke, who could not find his name in the register, expressed shock and said if the situation was the same across the state, the election needed to be cancelled.
At the ward of the running mate of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), John Chukwu Nwosu, the voters vowed not to leave the polling booth until they have exercised their franchise.
Reacting to the irregularities, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Peter Obi, Mike Udah, said INEC should show evidence of preparation for the election.
He lamented that voters trooped out to vote but could not find their names in the register, adding that only Hausa, Yoruba and other funny names were found in the registers.
He said many voters were disenfranchised.

Thuggery
A former Supervisory Councilor and chairmanship aspirant for Nnewi South, Emma Mbonu, was attacked at Osumeyi and his Nissan Xtera jeep with registration number, EQ 712 LSR, damaged. It was parked at the Amichi police station after the attack.

Ballot thumb-printing allegation
Early in the morning, it was rumoured that some boys were in the home of a member representing a constituency in Nnewi South in the state House of Assembly thumb-printing ballot papers.
It was gathered that when the police arrived, the boys fled the house.
When Sunday Sun spoke to the legislator at Ebenasa Ward 3, he was evasive and responded: “You can see me in handcuffs and in police cell.”
Although he is a PDP member, he was said to be working for the Labour Party candidate.
There was also an allegation that the police caught one person with cartons of voting materials as he came out from the INEC office last night.
But the leader of the police team there, CSP Dennis Anyai, dismissed the allegation, saying he was in the office throughout the day and nothing like that happened.
The Electoral Officer in charge of Nnewi North, Asade Ganiyu, also dismissed the story as unfounded.
According to him, anyone who tried that in the presence of combat-ready policemen and soldiers was on a suicide mission.

Blank result sheets
There were also 14 blank result sheets not sent to polling units. According to Ganiyu, the 14 result sheets were for the wards with zero registration, that no one was registered in those wards.
Most of the polling units did not get voting materials until about 11am. But by 8.55am, the last batch of voting materials had left the INEC office in Nnewi North for various polling centres.
When Sunday Sun visited the Eme Court residence of the Anambra Deputy Governor, Virgy Etiaba, by 10.30am, she was said to be sleeping and was to vote later.
Also by 11am, the polling unit at Anglican Church where the Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was to vote was yet to receive voting materials.
The Anglican Bishop of Nnewi Diocese, G. N. Okpala, who came to vote about 11.30am in the same ward with Ojukwu, was disappointed that the voting materials were yet to arrive. He turned back.