By Favour Goodness
Some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), have been arrested in the just concluded Anambra state guber poll over missing electoral result sheets for two wards in Oba community, Idemili South Local Government Area of the state
They were reported to have been arrested at the collation centre, (Merchant of Light Secondary School), last Saturday, when the electoral materials arrived the centre for distribution to the 53 electoral pollling units in the area.
On the process of checking the Electoral materials for distribution to the 53 polling units for the election, the Electoral Officer in charge of the two wards in Oba, discovered that the result sheets for the election were missing and immediately invite the police to arrest the officials.
The arrested officials were transferred from the Oba Police Station to the State Intelligent and Investigation Bureau, SIIB, Awka, for further investigation.
Reacting, the President General of Aboji Akanano Union, Oba, Nzeh Dozie Nweke, bemoaned the non conduct of election in the community.
“We, people of Oba were not among those that participated in the last Saturday gubernatorial election in the state. At 8am on the election day we waited for the electoral materials and INEC officials till 6pm and no election was conducted.
“When some of us went to the collation centre to know what was amiss, we were told that some INEC officials were arrested over missing result sheets and that they were taken to the Oba Police Station.
I went to Oba Police Station and was told that some INEC officials were being detained and would be transferred to Awka because of the nature of the offence allegedly committed”
“We then hoped that the election would then be conducted the next day being Sunday but it was not to be and we then hoped that it would be held alongside that of Ihiala Local Government where the election did not take place and still we were not involved during the election that was held last Tuesday”
“There are two wards in Oba, ward1 has 18 polling units and ward 2 has 35 polling units, making them 53 units. Why we are crying out is for the world to know that election was not conducted in Oba.
We want INEC to conduct election in Oba because we are part and parcel of the state. That INEC officials were arrested over missing result sheets should not stop our voting for the candidates of our choice.
We call on INEC to immediately conduct election in Oba as a community with the largest number of people in Idemili South local government Area” he said.
Confirming the arrest when contacted on phone, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO in charge of Oba police station, Mr. Ferbian Ofoha, referred our Correspondent to the state police Public Relations Office, Mr Tochukwu Ikenga.
When Tochukwu was contacted, he also referred our Correspondent to the Zone 13 spokesperson, Mrs Nkiru Nwudo, who said she was not aware of the arrest and pledged to get back to this reporter as at the time of filing this report.
