The recently concluded governorship and State House of Assembly polls in Ebonyi state was characterised by violence in some places and while the atmosphere was peaceful in some areas of the state. AMARACHUKWU EGWUAGHA in Abakaliki reports.
Ebonyi state, like every other state in Nigeria, joined in the process of electing the new leaders on Saturday, March 18, to pilot the affairs of the state. While the process was peaceful in some areas, it turned violent in some areas. In some places too, it was greeted with voter apathy.
At Oferekpe Izzi local government area, the home of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly and the guber candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Rt. Hon. Francis Nwifuru, the process was peaceful and orderly as at the time Blueprint visited the area. And at large the LGA was peaceful.
Also the some of the places, like state capital, and most LGAs within it, especially, Abakaliki, Ezza South, Onicha, Ohaozara, Ivo, the elections was conducted in a serene atmosphere.
In most places, the exercise started at 8am and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System(BVAS) was used for the exercise and very functional too.
Speaking to Journalists after casting his vote, Nwifuru eulogized the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies state government for the peaceful process.
“I am very grateful to God Almighty and INEC because you can see that it did not take me up to two minutes to be accredited and to vote which shows that INEC prepared very well for this election.
“So far, the exercise is going on very well, you can see that the atmosphere is calm, everybody is going about casting his/her vote and nobody is quarreling. I thank the Governor, INEC, and Security agencies for that.
“I’m very much impressed, you can see the time, it’s some minutes past 9am and the voting process is going on smoothly”.
A voter at the same Oferekpe, Ibina Marry Ngozi, noted that they were allowed to vote for the candidate of their choice.
“I have just finished voting, we cast our vote very fairly, the process is free and fair. Everybody was allowed to vote for the candidate of their choice”.
Violence
However, almost all the LGAs had reports of one violence or the other, especially, in Ezza North, the home of guber candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Prof. Bernard Odoh, there was confusion in some of units.
Ezza North LGA is not only the home of Odoh but his stronghold which explained why the violence judging that a candidate must get not less than 25 percent from each LGA.
In a video trending online, fire was seen burning on the road with what is suspected to be electoral materials.
An accompanying write-up claimed the incident happened in Ekwetekwe Umuezeoka in Ezza North.
There was also a report of thugs snatching of ballot boxes from INEC officials and se.of the officials allegedly writing results at other local government areas.
In Omege and Ekka communities also in Ezza North local government area, the same ballot box snatching was recorded.
This the INEC Resident Electoral Officer (REC), Pauline Onyeka confirmed. She said the commission has gotten reports of much electoral violence in the local government and other parts of the state.
She said the commission in the state was waiting for further directives on the next line of action regarding the affected polling units and wards.
Further speaking on the violence during the March 18 election, Prof. Odo in a phone interview alleged that massive number of armed thugs were on rampage in Umuezekoha ward where election materials were carted away and burnt.He alleged that some of the thugs wore fake army and police uniforms and shot three voters in Omege ward emphasising that the aim was to suppress votes in the area.
Professor Odo said security agents deployed to the area were doing their best but they were not enough to contain the number of thugs all over the place.
Also, when visited the election day,
the PDP guber candidate, Ifeanyi Odii,noted that he received many reports on the violence and said,
“Yes, the report has been coming in from different local governments. You know APC they are very desperate, because if they are prepared for election, I don’t think they will go about to disrupt the process in Ohaozara, Afikpo North and South, virtually almost all the local government.
“That is why I said if you are sure of winning, you will not disrupt the election. What they are doing is burning of ballot papers and results that is what they do but we have talking to security agencies to beef up more securities.
“Of course yes, the new electoral act said so when there are violences, INEC electoral commissioner should immediately cancel the elections in the area which I’m sure they have reported and will continue to report.
Low turnout
Generally, the election witnessed low turn out unlike the Presidential elections. Some persons described the low turnout to lack of means to their polling boots.
At Amudo Primary School polling unit in Ezza South local government area of the state, one of the voters Paul Onyia attributed the apathy to difficulties of the voters in accessing their polling units because of lack of logistics.
The Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Kenneth Ugbala, noted that it was expected that voter turnout would, at least reach 70 to 80 percent of those who participated during the presidential election but the turnout was much lower than that.Prof. Benard Odoh on his own described the turnout of voters in the state as generally low emphasising that he envisaged low margin of winning.
Also speaking on the low turnout Dr. Odii said, “in some areas yes, people came out very well and some areas, because of the trait from the APC government of using thugs, of course, they are doing that and it actually scared people away. So security agencies should have beefed up more security knowing full well the flashpoints.
“For me, if not for the violence here and there, I would have said that INEC BVAs is good for the election In Ebonyi state the disbanded Ebubeagu so we are thinking that the security agencies should have beef up more security. With the incidence of electoral violence here and there, it is making it very difficult at the moment, I will not be able to rate it”.
