Ihiala: Police Boss Assures Tight Security Amid Delayed Deployment Of Materials

The Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, has given the assurance that the 2021 Anambra governorship supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area would be hitch-free.

Echeng, who spoke at the Uzoakwa Headquarters of Ihiala while monitoring the situation, said there was no cause for alarm.

“We have made our deployment, it is very robust and we are confident that we are going to conduct elections in every location that we are supposed to have elections in Ihiala today.

“We are not saying that there is no fear, there is fear everywhere as far as Anambra is concerned but we have had elections in 20 Local Government Areas, this is just one Local Government Area.

“With what we have on ground, including the Police, Army, NSCDC, DSS and others, we are going to handle the situation,” he said.

Some prospective voters complained that they were yet to see the materials in their units. This was confirmed by Tony Onwuasanya, an Electoral Officer on duty.

He said some election materials were yet to leave the Local Government Secretariat as at noon. He said that the areas affected were the places where electoral personnel refused to go to for security reasons.

Onwuasanya identified the area as Lilu, Isseke, Orsumoghu, Ubuluisiuzo, Mbosi and Azia.

He said he had to escalate the situation.

Also, an official of the National Youths Service Corps had alleged that some corps members who were recruited for the election were being replaced by non-corps members.

The official said the scheme deployed 1,000 corps members to INEC for the Ihiala election but regretted that most of them were stranded and still loitering at the Secretariat.