Anambra Election: Drama As INEC Official Says He Signed Orumba North LGA Results Under Gunpoint

• Michael Otu, the returning officer of Orumba North LGA in the ongoing Anambra election, has said that he was forced to sign the results
• Otu, who made this stunning revelation in Awka, the capital of Anambra, on Sunday, November 7, said the results were signed at gunpoint
• According to him, there was no election in the entire local government area, adding that he signed the result under duress

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Orumba, Anambra - A mild drama ensued on Sunday, November 7, at the Anambra state governorship election collation centre, Awka, when the returning officer of Orumba North LGA, Michael Otu, denounced the result he signed.

PM News reports that the incident stunned stakeholders at the venue when Otu said he did not believe in the result.

Legit.ng gathered that he accused the electoral officer that was supposed to work with him of collaborating with some people to scuttle the election results in the area.

Otu stated this while delivering his report to the State Returning Officer, Prof. Florence Obi, at the ongoing election result collation.

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He said there was no election in the entire local government area, adding that a crisis fomented by policemen led to his signing the result under duress.

The returning officer said:

“I signed a report I didn’t believe in. I signed it under duress. I was teargassed. I was locked in the toilet until a policeman smuggled me out.

“I could not even go out to ease myself. They were monitoring me up and down. At a point, I saw that my life waS in danger, so, I have to sign the results they prepared.

Returning officer knows nothing about collation of election results

According to the report, while responding to the allegation, the electoral officer who did not give her name, accused the returning officer of not knowing anything about collating election results.

He noted:

“This man here has said so many things against me. But I observed that he has no experience in collating election results.

“This man does not know his left from his right. The result is full of mutilation. He does not know the difference between conducting elections and collating results.

In her response, Prof. Florence Obi said that she was told about the crisis in the local government area.

She said:

“This is the only local government I had a distress call from and I had to call the commissioner of police and told him that the lives of my staff are in danger."

APGA's Soludo says he will win Anambra governorship election

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chukwuma Soludo, said he was very confident he would win the ongoing Anambra state governorship election.

It was reported that while speaking with journalists on Saturday, November 6, after casting his vote at his polling unit in Aguata LGA of Anambra state, Soludo said even if only 100 people vote in the election, he would win.

Soludo arrived at his polling unit early to vote but he was not able to exercise his franchise due to malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).