Buses & Polling Units Reportedly Burnt, Corps Members Injured In Imo State

A source, who is one of the Corps members working for INEC in that region and who would not like to be named, told our correspondent that villagers from the six villages in Oru-East Local Government burnt buses and polling units.

The villages include; Awo-Ommama, Akuma, Amagu, Akatta, Amiri, Omuma.

They also attacked police officers and soldiers.

The source said trouble started in the towns when “some men came to the LG council from Awo-Ommama, saying they heard that ten card readers and report sheets were missing. They started disrupting the peace saying no election.”

The fracas started since morning till around 2.30pm when the DSS were deployed to restore order to the affected areas, the insider told Pulse.

The Corpers and other presiding officers were escorted to their Polling Units afterwards, but the bus they were transported in was smashed on their way and about four Corpers were injured.

“It’s major. Several Corpers in the village have had their phones smashed so that very few info/pictures leaves the village,” said the source.

The police in the state could not be reached for comment as at the time of filing this report.

However, it was gathered that some youths in the village said it in November last year that they were already paid to disrupt the March 28 election. There was a high rate of PVC robbery and "forced selling."

Awo-Ommama is the only stronghold of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of the six villages.

Most of the destructions happened only in the APC stronghold.