Nonsochukwu Uwa, Owerri
Unknown gunmen on Thursday killed a staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Anthony Okorie, at the on-going Continuous Voter’s Registration Exercise, CVR, in Ihitte Uboma Local Government Area of Imo State.
INEC, National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye, confirmed this to newsmen in Owerri.
He stated that the incident happened at Nkwo Ihitte (PU 004) in Amakohia Ward (RA 02).
As at press time, INEC said two other officials of theirs were still missing.
The reason for the attack, Ikengaonline gathered was because of the alleged insistence of the hoodlums that elections will not hold in the region in 2023 as they were not joking.
However, Ikengaonline was told that the Continuous Voter’s Education, CVR, was also suspended in two LGAs of the state – Orsu and Njaba – due to insecurity.
A statement from INEC read: “The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has suspended the continuous voter’s registration exercise in Ihitte Uboma Local Government Area of Imo state.
“This is sequel to the report of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Francis Ezeonu, to the effect that on the 14 April 2022, a staff of the Commission, Mr. Anthony Okorie, involved in the ongoing CVR exercise, was shot dead by unknown gunmen at Nkwo Ihitte (PU 004) in Amakohia Ward (RA 02) of Ihitte Uboma Local Government Area of the state.
“The REC further reported that the state office is making efforts to locate the whereabouts of two remaining staff involved in the registration.
“Before this incident, the Commission had suspended the CVR, in Orsu and Njaba Local Government Areas of the state, on account of insecurity while the exercise is taking place only in the INEC LGA office in Oru East, Oru West, Orlu, and Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Areas of the state.”
As at the time of filing this report the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Michael Abattam, was yet to react to the incident.
