Enugu: Tension over shortage of materials, missing names

Posted by admin Elections 2011, Enugu, State News Sunday, April 10th, 2011

There was tension in Enugu State on Saturday following the omission of the names of some eligible voters from the register of the Independent National Electoral Commission and shortage of voting materials in some polling units.

At the Okpu-Orba village square polling booth in Udenu Local Government Area, an ad-hoc National Youth Service Corps member, who presided over the elections, Mr. Anam Etim, said that though 175 voters registered to vote, he was only given 20 sheets of ballot papers for election into the Senate and 19 sheets for the House of Representatives’ election.

Etim, who was nearly lynched by the irate crowd, regretted that the police officers posted to the polling unit were not armed. The security operatives, who tried to rescue him from the angry crowd, were, however, overpowered.

The supervisor of the polling unit, Mrs. Charity Asogwa, said, “I gave the electoral officer what they gave to me. I distributed exactly what they gave to me. I told them that it was not complete but they did not listen to me.”

In spite of the pockets of missing names and insufficient materials, the election went on peacefully in most parts of Enugu State.

SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that the restriction of movement by security operatives prevented several people from exercising their franchise.

At Opi in Nsukka LGA, there was an allegation that a certain opposition party forced voters to vote for it at a certain polling unit.

=Punchwp_posts