When collation for the rerun elections of the Nnewi North, Nnewi South, and Ekwusigo Federal Constituencies in Anambra State began at around 7 p.m. on Saturday, security personnel completely blocked the entrance and the entire grounds of the Nnewi North Local Government headquarters.
The Young Progressive Party’s Peter Uzokwe, the senator representing Anambra South, Ifeanyi Ubah, and a number of other party representatives and candidates were also turned away from the polling site by security personnel, according to our correspondent covering the election.
However, a heated argument between some party officials who were locked outside and the security personnel—including some INEC officials—caused a commotion around the secretariat’s premises.
When no one was permitted to leave or enter, the situation became tense and journalists and other election observers were locked inside.
A power outage at the secretariat forced the returning officers and other INEC officials to turn on their telephone torch lights, which provided a source of power supply for the collation room, so the collation, which started at around 7:15 p.m., was conducted in complete darkness.
By 8:20 p.m., the electoral officer was seen storming out of the collation room, complaining that there was no light and that he could do nothing. However, one of the soldiers persuaded him to return inside so that the collation could continue using the lights from their telephone torches.
At approximately 8:46 p.m., when this report was filed, some party officials were still locked outside, and the electoral officer was still conferring with some officials to determine whether to proceed with the collation or not.
To determine the winner of the Orumba North and Orumba South federal constituencies, a rerun election was conducted in five polling places in the Nnewi North, Nnewi South, and Ekwusigo Federal Constituencies and in sixteen polling places at Nanka in the Orumba North Local Government Area.
The Nnewi, Nnewi North Local Government Area’s five polling units were used to determine the winners of the Nnewi, Nnewi South, and Ekwusigo federal constituencies.
At the impacted polling places in Nnewi North, there are 97,438 registered voters overall, compared to 161,914 in Orumba North.
