Soldiers patrolling Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State have shot a yet-to-be-identified man as hitches marred the on-going Anambra governorship supplementary election in the area.

Soldiers from a patrol van opened fire on commuters hundreds of metres away from the LGA headquarters and one fell.

After moving a short distance away, a crowd began to form around the man, prompting the soldiers to return, firing sporadically again and sending residents scampering for security.

When our reporter returned to the scene, the middle-aged man was no longer there. Multiple witnesses said he had been picked up by the soldiers.

Attempts to record the incident were futile, as soldiers forced all commuters to alight from their vehicles and raise both hands to full length.

Sporadic shootings by heavily armed soldiers have dispersed voters exercising their franchise at different polling units. Voters were fleeing their polling units, seeing soldiers on patrol shooting sporadically in the air this Tuesday afternoon, November 9, 2021.

Meanwhile, some of the ad-hoc officials deployed for the supplementary election have stayed away from their polling units over security concerns.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted an Electoral Officer as saying that there were areas where electoral personnel refused to go to for security reasons.

The officer, who preferred anonymity, identified the area as Lilu, Isseke, Orsumoghu, Ubuluisiuzo, Mbosi and Azia.

The person said that development had escalated the situation in the area.

Also, an official of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) alleged that some corps members who were made available for the election were being replaced by non-corps members.

The official, who refused to disclose his name, said the scheme deployed 1,000 corps to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the Ihiala election but regretted that most of them were stranded and still loitering at the secretariat.

The officials insisted that the trained corps members must be deployed and paid.

There were still unavailability of election materials at various polling units as at noon.

The election which was supposed to commence at 10am and end at 4pm has not started as election materials are yet to leave the local government headquarters.

An Electoral Officer on duty said there were areas where electoral personnel refused to go to for security reasons.

The officer, who preferred anonymity, identified the area as Lilu, Isseke, Orsumoghu, Ubuluisiuzo, Mbosi and Azia.

The person said that development had escalated the situation in the area.

However, when contacted, CP Echeng Echeng, the Commissioner of Police in Anambra said that adequate security deployment had been made to ensure that the 2021 Anambra governorship supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area was hitch free.

Echeng who spoke at the Uzoakwa Headquarters of Ihiala while monitoring the situation said there was no cause for alarm.

“We have made our deployment, it is very robust and we are confident that we are going to conduct elections in every location that we are supposed to have elections in Ihiala today.

“We are not saying that there is no fear, there is fear everywhere as far as Anambra is concerned but we have had elections in 20 Local Government Areas, this is just one Local Government Area.

“With what we have on ground including the Police, Army, NSCDC, DSS and others, we are going to handle the situation,” he said. (NAN)

•Based on reports by Foundation For Investigative Journalism (FJN) and the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

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