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The House of Assembly elections in Imo state was Saturday marred by large-scale militarization of the exercise, abduction of election officials and widespread snatching of election materials.
From Owerri the state capital to the boundary communities in Ideato North Council area, cases of abduction of officials and snatching of election materials were rampant and unmitigated.
To prove that the warning and directives of the Inspector General of Police were apparently , plain rhetoric, the Ebubeagu Vigilante outfit of the Imo State government were in full operation deploying the crudest form of violence and intimidation.
The outfit was the culprit in the alleged abduction of about 17 adhoc staff of INEC who were on their way to work at Ugbelle ward in Ideato South council area.
When they eventually freed the officials, they took away their BVAS machines, the result sheets and other electoral materials.
Similarly, the 27 LGA Sole Administrators in Imo state literally functioned as thugs with each of them moving around their local council with a retinue of thugs and the Ebubeagu gunmen.
Most of them were also active in the snatching of election materials.
The election was dominated by the deployment of the force of arm by the ruling APC government in the state to the extent that the Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly, Amara Chyna Iwuanyanwu, a candidate in the same election, was moving from polling units to polling units intimidating voters and opponent full backed by a ‘platoon’ of armed policemen and a Police Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) in his convoy.
In the course of his roaming the polling units, his thugs, emboldened by his ‘superior firepower’ shot at point blank range, the Umuanya Amaigbo Youth Leader, Tochukwu Amaechi, who was at his polling unit in Umuanya, Amaigbo Community, Nwangele LGA. Amaechi is currently battling for his life.
In the state capital, the thugs loyal to the APC state chairman, with the full support of security agents chased other parties out of the St. Paul polling unit at Douglas Road, Owerri. A PDP agent was stabbed in the head and bled profusely. He had to be rushed out for medical attention.
The state actors in apparent connivance with INEC, are taking advantage of areas ravaged by insecurity where elections did not hold. By midday Saturday, the allegations were rife that electoral materials for
Ohafor-Okporo/Umutanze, Ebenese/Umueze/Ihioma, Okwuabala Ihioma, IhitteOwerre, Ogbaeruru and Amaifeke wards were no election held, were in the custody of state actors in Orlu, who were all gathered at the Orlu LGA guarded by heavy security while alleged manipulations were taking place.
If the Presidential election of February 25 was bad for non-compliance with electoral guidelines, Saturday’s House of Assembly election in Imo state was a disaster.
The Police authorities in the state were unashamedly partisan. Findings indicate that part of the platoon of the Deputy Speaker, was the Officer Commanding and men of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the Imo state police Command.
The soldiers were not wonderful, they were a bit discrete but in Ideato South, they threw caution to the wind to lend themselves to do the work of political thugs, chasing away people from the LGA Collation Centre.
The INEC REC in Imo state, Prof. Sylvia Agu is either deeply complicit in the excesses of the Imo state government or thoroughly overwhelmed by the rampaging impunity of state actors who had deployed everything in its war chest to overrun the will of Imo people.
As at the time of filing this report, no official result has been declared for any LGA in Imo state.
