Politics
Election: Corps Members Withdraw from the Imo Election—REC
Election: Corps members withdraw from the Imo election—REC
At least 100 corps members trained as electoral officers and assistant presiding officers in three local government areas of Imo State have withdrawn their participation in Saturday’s general election. NewsReport gathered.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Imo State, Sylvia Agu, disclosed this yesterday in Owerri while speaking on the preparedness of the commission for Saturday’s election.
According to her, the corps members cited insecurity as the reason for their withdrawal.
The REC said: “This morning, I received information that all the corps members we trained to work in Okigwe, Orlu, and Orsu local government areas have been withdrawn.”
“They claim they are unable to travel to volatile areas, which they claim are “terrorist areas.”
“I have called the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to appeal to them, but I was told the scheme has even withdrawn all corps members serving in the three local government areas so as not to risk their lives.”
The REC explained that the corps members withdrew their participation following the commission’s decision to revert to polling units as opposed to the use of stadiums in volatile areas.
She said the commission had earlier faced security challenges in Okigwe, Orlu, Njaba, Orsu, Iheme/Mbano, Oru West, and Oru East local government areas during the collection of the permanent voters’ cards.
“Because of the problems, we had quite a low turnout for the collection in Okigwe axis, and so, stakeholders in the area resolved to collapse five registration areas to Okigwe Stadium.” It worked well and was so impressive. They held another meeting and suggested they come there to vote, but I asked them to put it in writing. I reported the same to our headquarters. “When Orlu heard what Okigwe did, they came to me, but I told them to go back to their people and to write officially, which they did,” she explained.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army’s 34 Artillery Brigade, led by Obinze Imo, has approved additional hotlines for Operation Safe Conduct of the 2023 general election.
A statement by the Brigade’s spokesperson, Joseph Akubo, yesterday in Owerri said the additional hotlines were to ensure more access to the public.
According to him, the hotlines are specifically for the monitoring and reporting of security breaches, illegalities, suspicious acts, and violence by any individual or group during the election in the state.
