Hoodlums disrupt rerun election in Enugu; LP, PDP candidates trade blames

By Emmanuel Oloniruha, Abuja/Stanley Nwanosike, Enugu

Feb. 14, 2024

Hoodlums on Wednesday disrupted the Enugu rerun election for Enugu South 1 State Constituency, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said.

INEC said this in a short note on its verified X social media handle on Wednesday.

“Report from our Enugu State office indicate that hoodlums have disrupted the electoral process in the state constituency.

“Fortunately, no casualties were reported, but election materials were destroyed, and voters were obstructed from casting their votes.

“Our officials have been safely evacuated with assistance from security agencies” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the impasse that resulted in elections not taking place followed a disagreement between Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mr. Sam Ngene, the PDP Candidate for Enugu South Urban State Constituency re-run, said that the election would not hold due to “lack of authentic result sheets for the election”.

“We are not happy with the current development as it is not fair to my party. We have made formal complaints to INEC, alleging that INEC official hoarded the authentic result sheets.

“This election should not hold and should not stand. That is PDP stand,” he said.

On his part, Mr. Emeka Ngene, the LP Candidate for the election, accused the PDP of deliberately ensuring that the election would never go smoothly.

Ngene said that the authentic result sheets were available as presented by INEC and was sighted by all stakeholders at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday.

“The election should go on and this is for the interest of tax payers, whose money is being used to prosecute this election.

The election, which was supposed to hold on Feb. 3, was rescheduled for Feb. 14,” he said.