Blackout as collation begins in Anambra LG

The entrance and the entire premises of the Nnewi North Local Government headquarters, the venue serving as the collation centre for the rerun election of Nnewi North, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituencies in Anambra State, were entirely barricaded by security operatives as collation started around 7 pm on Saturday.

Our correspondent who monitored the election also observed that the Senator representing Anambra South, Ifeanyi Ubah; the candidate of the Young Progressive Party, Peter Uzokwe and a host of other party agents and candidates were also denied entry into the premises by the security operatives.

This, however, created a scene around the secretariat premises due to a hot exchange between some party officials who were locked outside and the security operatives, including some INEC officials.

The situation became intense as journalists and other election observers were locked inside while no one was allowed to go outside or come inside.

The collation which began at about 7:15 pm was done amidst total darkness as there was a power outage at the secretariat, a situation that prompted the returning officers and other INEC officials to turn on their telephone torch lights which served as a source of power supply at the collation room.

As of 8:20 pm, the Electoral Officer was seen storming out of the collation room, lamenting that he could not do anything as there was no light, but one of the soldiers prevailed on him to go back inside so they could continue using their telephone torch lights to continue the collation.

As of the time of filing this report at about 8:46 pm, the Electoral Officer was still consulting with some electoral officials to decide if they would continue the collation or not while some party officials were still locked outside.

The rerun election was held in five polling units in Nnewi North, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituencies; and in 16 polling units at Nanka in Orumba North Local Government Area to determine the winner of the Orumba North and Orumba South federal constituency.

It also took place in five polling units at Nnewi, Nnewi North Local Government Area to determine the winner of Nnewi North and Nnewi South and Ekwusigo federal constituencies.

The total number of registered voters at the affected polling units in Nnewi North is 97,438 while that of Orumba North is 161,914 voters.