By MICHAEL OVAT, Awka

There are indications that six days to the Anambra State guber election and despite the threat by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to lockdown Anambra State and other South-East states for five days, including the date of the election, Anambra people are eager to participate in the election.

However, while a number of people spoken to by Sunday Tribune are keen on voting, some people believe that though the threat may lead to voter apathy, they are sure that the threat will not stop the election from holding.

Two residents of Ekwulobia, in Aguata council area, Messrs. Okwuchukwu Onah and Nkem James, who spoke to our correspondent on Saturday, said they were ready to participate in the election.

Mr Onah, a trader at EkeAwka Market said:

“I live here in Awka, and my house is not very far from the polling station where I always vote; so I do not see going out to vote as being dangerous.”

Mr James, on his part said: “I will go out to vote on election day. I have heard there will be a lot of security, but we are not counting on them for protection, but my confidence is that, even on sit-at-home days, we have always moved around in this community. We know ourselves here, and when we have new faces that are coming to make trouble, we will know them. In this community, everybody knows the other person,” he said.

Reacting to how the threat by IPOB and the insecurity in the zone may affect the election, a candidate in the election, Dr Obiora Okonkwo of Zenith Labour Party, who spoke to our correspondent, expressed optimism that the election will hold and successfully too.

He said, “Don’t forget that there has always been voter apathy in Anambra State, even when there were no threats. In the last election, just 230,000 people determined the winner by voting for Chief Willie Obiano. What that tells you is that this year, the winner of the election may score less than 150,000 votes. But the important thing is that a winner will emerge.

“So, this year, we are not going to witness too much turnout, but we are very confident that the election would hold. I am also very confident of winning the election. We know who our supporters are, and we know where to find the vote. I come from the Central senatorial zone, and I’m the only candidate from the zone, which has the highest number of votes in the state. So we know where the votes are, and whether apathy or not, we already know those who will vote for us,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Bishop of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr Sunday Onuoha has warned the Federal Government to desist from its incessant clampdown on South-East separatists agitators in the country, because their Biafra ideology can’t be killed with guns.

The Bishop who made this known in an exclusive interview with Sunday Tribune noted that the various separatists agitations gripping the country are testaments of the frustration of Nigerians and bottled anger against the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, which they claimed has inflicted more hardship on them and at the same time stifled their freedom of expression.

In another interview with our correspondent, an elder statesman and former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran, stated that despite its current state, Nigeria can still be rescued if the right leader is elected for it in 2023. (Sunday Tribune)

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