Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has shut down operations in four Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Anambra State over rising security challenges in the areas.
The four LGAs include Idemili North, Nnewi South, Ogbaru and Ayamelum.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the State, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji,told journalists on Friday while giving update on the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise in the State at INEC office Awka that the situation in Ayamelum was so critical that the Local Government administration had to be relocated to neighbouring Oyi Local Government Area.
Orji said that the INEC office amd materials were burnt down during the attack on Nnewi South Local Government.
“Our offices and all our property including the registration devices in Nnewi South were destroyed. We can only go back to Nnewi South when we are sure that the situation is safe for operations,” he said.
According to him, the commission is doing all within its capacity to ensure successful registration in the state.
He also urged the public to sympathise with the commission and help it to achieve success in the exercise.
He, however, said that recently INEC had observed surge in citizens seeking to register in the ongoing registration exercise and urged them to be patient with workers.
“This surge in the number of prospective registrants has put substantial pressure on the resources and capacity of the commission. It has also led to long queuing time and other inconveniences on the part of the prospective registrants.
”The commission is addressing these challenges through measures such as creations of additional registration centres in the state and local government area offices as well as reopening some local government offices that were shut down as result of insecurity,” he said.
He also advised the prospective registrants to report to INEC on noticing any officer misbehaving in the process of the exercise.
He further advised that people complaints should contain specific detail like names and location of place to enable them track the erring officers.