The National Commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) , Solomon Soyebi, has blamed the late arrival of electoral materials at several polling units in the ongoing governorship election in Anambra on corps members.
Soyebi told journalists in Anambra on Saturday that some of the corps members did not have the right attitude towards the exercise and were hesitant to go to some areas.
He said, “We have some problems with the corpers, especially those that we brought from outside the state. Most of them did not want to go to where they were posted.
“There was a mix-up in the posting of corpers, it is caused by corpers’ mix-up. In fact, in Awka-South here, we had to shift about 180 (corps members) to Nnewi-North and South at about 8:30, that is going to cause some delay.”
However, Soyebi was confident that the logistic challenges including card reader’s failure in some instances would not undermine the election.
“About four of them (card readers) have failed but they have been replaced I can assure you. We told you yesterday that they are machines that are bound to malfunction but definitely they have addressed that issue very promptly,” he said.
Meanwhile, the candidates of the United Progressive Party and Progressive People’s Alliance, Osita Chidoka and Godwin Ezeemo, respectively, have criticised the delay in the arrival of electoral materials.
They claimed that the delay appears to be part of a plan to disenfranchise their supporters.
