Sporadic shootings by heavily armed soldiers have dispersed voters exercising their franchise at different polling units in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The governorship election in the state on Nov. 6 was declared inconclusive over the violence that stalled the polling exercise at Ihiala.
However, residents of the area have lamented that the heavy military presence and sporadic shootings around polling units are scaring voters away.
They also said that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have refused to show up at different polling units.
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Alphonsus Igbanugo, a registered voter at the Central School, Uzuoakwa Ward 3, said that scores of voters waited for hours in the polling unit but there was no INEC official to conduct the voting exercise.
“We have nowhere to cast our votes but we’re waiting for INEC,” he said. “People are here, people are ready to vote,” he added.
It was observed that voters were fleeing their polling units, seeing soldiers on patrol shooting sporadically in the air.
Several voters in the area said that gunshots and reports of violence were tools employed by mischief makers to disrupt the election exercise.
