The Presidential and National Assembly elections exercise in Our East Local Council on Saturday, turned violent by some youths who protested what they alleged as missing 17 Card Reader Machines in the area.
The Imo State Police Command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Andrew Enwerem, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), told The Guardian that the complaint was taken to the Resident Electoral Commission (REC), in the state, Dr. Gabriel Ada, who assured them of investigating the matter.
He said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Austin Evbakhavbokun, promptly intervened in the area and handled the fracas.
Enwerem had said on Friday that about 6,000 Policemen, were deployed to provide security during the polls in the state.
As at 10:00 a.m. there was reported case of faulty card reader machine at Government House boot and in most polling units there were cases of either non-functional machines or late arrival of INEC officials.
The areas affected include Christ Church, Road, Owerri, Ihitte Mbieri, units in Ihiagwa, Owerri West Local Council, Amaimo, Amuzu units 6, boot five, Emekuku ward 1, ( started 12.20 p.m.), Umueze Mbano, Umunma Central school, Nekede and Enyiogugu Mbaise.
Dan Nwanyanwu, the immediate past national chairman of the Labour Party, waited from 8.30 a.m., to 9.45 a.m., before officials of INEC arrived at Amuzu, Amaimo Ikeduru ward.
He regretted that of all voters there, only one was successfully authenticated by the machine, before the officials began to use incident form to accredit.
As at 12.41p.m, out of 580 voters at Ikeduru, only 8 had been accredited with the INEC machine. Some witnesses said they had to clean their fingers many times before the machine authenticated them.
