By Cajetan Mmuta
Battle for votes by candidates of various political parties in Ihiala local government area in the supplementary Governorship election held on Tuesday ended with a sad tale of the death of a yet to be identified middle aged man in the hands of soldiers in the area.

This is a result of the supplementary election in Ihiala local government area had started coming in from the polling units where the exercise was held.

ThisNigeria gathered that soldiers patrolling around the distribution and collation centre at the Ihiala Local Government Headquarters reportedly shot the young man.

But the Nigeria Police Force in reaction denied knowledge of the killing of anybody during the Anambra State Governorship Supplementary Election in the Ihiala Local Government Area of the state.
The Zone 13 Police Headquarters Public Relations Officer, DSP Nkeiru Nwode, when contacted said nothing of such happened.

According to Nwode, “We don’t have such report and I don’t think something like that happened.”
It was learnt that the man was shot when soldiers fired shots at commuters at a checkpoint in the town.

The soldiers were also said to have forced commuters to come down from vehicles plying the roads and compel them to raise their two hands up apparently to submit to their intimidation and order.

The sudden incident had attached a crowd of people at the scene as the soldiers quickly moved away from the point to a distant location.

They were said to have returned back shortly with their Hilux van and taken away the corpse of the dead man.
However, materials for the supplementary Poll had started at about 12noon as against 10 am due to a delay in the distribution of election materials to different polling units.

Materials and INEC Ad-hoc did not leave the Ihiala local government headquarters on time.

Investigations revealed that some of the ad-hoc staff had refused to go to some areas considered as prone to security threats due to fear of activities of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Some of the areas include Azia, Lilu and other communities in Ihiala which share the common neighbourhoods with the Orsu local government area in Imo state.

A large number of security operatives, particularly, the heavy presence of soldiers had posed a serious threat to some of the voters to cast their votes.

An estimated 148, 407 registered voters were expected to vote in the supplementary poll.

However, the Governorship candidates were left with a total 12, 000 contestable votes to battle for in order to make up their earlier scores during Saturday’s main contest.

From available results so far released from the polling units in Amorka Community Primary School, PU 001, APGA- 27, PDP-14, APC -2, LP -2.

At Our Lady’s High School Ihiala PU003; APGA 27, PDP-15, APC -0.

At Ubahaekwem Primary School, Ihiala; APGA -68, PDP-39, LP-2, APC-1, YPP-1 while in PU11 of the same Ubahaekwem; APGA-34, PDP-23, Others zero.

Ihiala supplementary poll witness delay of election materials, personnel

From Union Primary School Okija; APGA-45, PDP-24, APC-2.

Expectations no doubt are high as members of all participating political parties, security agents and returning officers move to the INEC headquarters in Awka the state capital for the final release of results of the epic governorship contest and eventual declaration of the overall winner of the Governorship election.