The verification, upgrading and continuous registration of voters by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Enugu, ahead of the 2015 general election, threw up a major upset on Friday when it was discovered that the names of the state Governor, Sullivan Chime, and a Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Chief Euegene Odoh, were not in the commission’s register.

Others affected include the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, Chairman of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Vita Abba, a serving senator and some members of the Federal House of Representatives.

Also affected are some polling booths mostly in Nsukka and Igboetiti council areas where 230 and 190 polling booths were returned by INEC with zero registered voters and this incident has overheated the polity because there has been strong agitation for the next governor to come from the area.

Besides, 621 of the 2,490 polling booths in the state were completely missing from the INEC register, a situation which officials of the commission described as human and machine error.

Others include Aninri (2), Awgu (6), Enugu East (20), Enugu North (2), Enugu South (4), Ezeagu (2), Igboeze North (25), Igboeze South (4), Isi-Uzo (1), Nkanu West (148), Oji River (5), Udenu (3), Uzo Uwani (4), while two polling booths were completely missing in the governor’s Udi council area.

INEC officials have, however, dismissed the insinuations in some quarters that the action had political undertone, insisting that it was caused by human and machine error, which they claimed had been rectified in readiness for the forthcoming registration exercise.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Lawrence Azubuike, earlier told newsmen that a fresh voter registration would be conducted in the state from May 28 to June 1, urging those whose polling booths were affected to take part in the exercise.

Reacting to the development, the leadership of the People Democratic Party (PDP) in the state on Friday threatened to drag INEC to court if the anomaly was not rectified before the elections, accusing the electoral body of deliberately trying to collude with some “desperate” politicians to disenfranchise majority of the people of the state.

•Excerpted from a Saturday Independent report. Photo shows Governor Chime.

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