#AnambraDecides2021: Election didn’t take place in two LGAs – Election officials

There were no elections in two local government areas during Saturday’s Anambra governorship election, the election officials have said.

The two local government areas are Ihiala and Orumba North.

The collation officers for the two areas disclosed this on Sunday during the collation of results from the local government areas at the State Collation Centre in Awka.

The presentation made by the Collation Officer for Orumba North, Michael Otu, became dramatic when he and his electoral officer openly disagreed and accused each other of misconduct.

Mr Otu, a law lecturer in University of Calabar, told the State Collation Officer, Florence Obi, the vice-chancellor of University of Calabar, that he signed the election result under duress.

“I signed the result, I don’t believe in the result. I signed it under duress,” he said.

He said the electoral officer and another election official who were supposed to work with him brought thugs to attack him during collation.

“My experience was very pathetic, but I thank God I am alive,” he said.

The Electoral Officer, Comfort, in responding to the allegations against her, said the Orumba North collation officer, Mr Otu, was unstable and not fit for the job.

“If you watch this man for 30 minutes, you’ll know that he is not composed. We were watching him, he said so many things about me. He has never had an experience on how to collate (election) results.

“He does not know the difference between conducting an election and collating an election,” she said.

The state collation officer, Mrs Obi, intervened and said she was aware of the case in the area. She said she received a distress call from the area and personally called the commissioner of police in Anambra to intervene.

She promised that the case would be looked into.

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The results from all the local government areas have been called except one.

Meanwhile, the exercise has been put on hold for the election officials to go on a break.

Charles Soludo, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, maintains a clear lead, from the results announced so far by the National Electoral Commission.