Ten corps members were held hostage in
a village in Nassarawa Eggon local government of Nasarawa State
Saturday where they were deployed by INEC to go and conduct elections,
after the villagers heard that the election has been shifted till
Monday.
The villagers insisted on seeing the
electoral officer of the local government, Jacob Ajuh, to confirm the
postponement before they would let the corps members leave their
community.
One of the corps members, Cynthia Eze,
who is the presiding officer in Moyi electoral ward in Nassarawa Eggon,
told NEXT that she narrowly escaped from the angry electorate in the
ward who were trying to snatch ballot papers from her hands. She
thanked the security agents sent to her rescue by the electoral officer
of the ward.
“INEC has to beef up its security ahead
of the next election, otherwise to conduct election in this local
government will be a difficult thing,” she said.
Nkechi Eri, another corps member,
expressed disappointment at the fiasco that trailed the elections,
especially after the INEC boss, Attahiru Jega, has said the commission
was fully prepared to conduct free and fair elections.
Security a must
She called on INEC to increase the
number of security agents at polling units across the state so that
corps members who are participating in the elections would feel safe.
Lamenting the loss of business
opportunities and the profit he would have made if he fully opened for
business, Joseph Embugushiki, a shop keeper in the local council, said
he had wasted time queuing for an election that did not hold at the
end.
Another businessman, who is also the
village head of Galle, a village in the local government, Umaru Yaka,
said in his electoral unit of Ehlayaka, the INEC staff did not even
show up for the accreditation, talk less of conducting an election.
