Anambra Poll: Angry women protest disenfranchisement in Awka
Many voters were disenfranchised from the election.
Dozens of women angry at being disenfranchised during Saturday’s Anambra State Gubernatorial election took their protest to INEC headquarters, Awka, Sunday.
However, the heavy presence of armed police officers around the electoral commission’s office prevented them from getting within 500 metres of the office.
The women, who identified themselves as “Anambra women” said that they could not cast their votes because their names were missing on the voters register.
Others said that the late arrival of electoral materials prevented them from casting their votes.
Chanting solidarity songs, the women made their way from the Awka-Onitsta expressway towards the House of Assembly road, where the INEC is situated, only to run into a wall of stern faced security operatives.
In a related development, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has called for the cancellation of the election.
In a statement by Lai Mohammed, the APC’s interim National Publicity Secretary, the party said that voting did not take place across the state, especially in the party’s strongholds of Idemili North and South as well as Awka South.
According to the APC, electoral materials meant for Idemili North Local Government, which has 180,000 voters, were “hijacked” without any explanation by INEC.
The party also said that the voters’ registers for Idemili South, Chris Ngige’s local government, did not contain the names of voters in the local government, despite assurances by the commission.
“Before the election, political parties were given voters’ registers that largely contained the names of most voters,” the APC said in the statement.
“However, about four days to the election, Prof Jega said at an interactive stakeholders forum that there were problems with the registers, which would be rectified before the election.
“However, when the supposedly-corrected registers were brought back, most of the authentic names in them have disappeared, without explanation,” it added.
The party further called for the immediate removal of Chukwuemeka Onukogu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state for being “incompetent and conniving.”
APC said it complained that Prof. Onukogu had been partial and unprofessional when he conducted the 2011 election.
“In 2011, when Prof. Onukogu conducted the general elections in the state, he was very partial. During the Onitsha South 2 House of Assembly constituency and Idemili South House of Assembly polls, he declared the results of both inconclusive, only for him to announce the results at 12 midnight,” the APC said.
“After we challenged the results in court and a rerun was ordered, we won both constituencies.
“We subsequently petitioned INEC and the Commission assured us that the same person will not be allowed to conduct subsequent election. Alas, he was left in place to do another damage to INEC as an institution through his glaring incompetence and partiality, which have seriously affected the credibility of this governorship election,” the party added.
Dozens of women angry at being disenfranchised during Saturday’s Anambra State Gubernatorial election took their protest to INEC headquarters, Awka, Sunday.
However, the heavy presence of armed police officers around the electoral commission’s office prevented them from getting within 500 metres of the office.
The women, who identified themselves as “Anambra women” said that they could not cast their votes because their names were missing on the voters register.
Others said that the late arrival of electoral materials prevented them from casting their votes.
Chanting solidarity songs, the women made their way from the Awka-Onitsta expressway towards the House of Assembly road, where the INEC is situated, only to run into a wall of stern faced security operatives.
In a related development, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has called for the cancellation of the election.
In a statement by Lai Mohammed, the APC’s interim National Publicity Secretary, the party said that voting did not take place across the state, especially in the party’s strongholds of Idemili North and South as well as Awka South.
According to the APC, electoral materials meant for Idemili North Local Government, which has 180,000 voters, were “hijacked” without any explanation by INEC.
The party also said that the voters’ registers for Idemili South, Chris Ngige’s local government, did not contain the names of voters in the local government, despite assurances by the commission.
“Before the election, political parties were given voters’ registers that largely contained the names of most voters,” the APC said in the statement.
“However, about four days to the election, Prof Jega said at an interactive stakeholders forum that there were problems with the registers, which would be rectified before the election.
“However, when the supposedly-corrected registers were brought back, most of the authentic names in them have disappeared, without explanation,” it added.
The party further called for the immediate removal of Chukwuemeka Onukogu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state for being “incompetent and conniving.”
APC said it complained that Prof. Onukogu had been partial and unprofessional when he conducted the 2011 election.
“In 2011, when Prof. Onukogu conducted the general elections in the state, he was very partial. During the Onitsha South 2 House of Assembly constituency and Idemili South House of Assembly polls, he declared the results of both inconclusive, only for him to announce the results at 12 midnight,” the APC said.
“After we challenged the results in court and a rerun was ordered, we won both constituencies.
“We subsequently petitioned INEC and the Commission assured us that the same person will not be allowed to conduct subsequent election. Alas, he was left in place to do another damage to INEC as an institution through his glaring incompetence and partiality, which have seriously affected the credibility of this governorship election,” the party added.
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