Police arrest imported voter's in Anambra

More than 100 persons brought in from Lagos State;
Jos, the Plateau State capital; and other parts of the
country to register as voters in Anambra State in the
ongoing voters revalidation exercise were on Sunday
arrested and detained by the police in the state.
Also arrested were two members of the Independent
National Electoral Commission ad hoc staff who were
the registration and assistant registration officers for
Unit 013, Ovala Square, Igbariam. They are National
Youth Service Corps members recruited to register
voters during the revalidation exercise.
The police also impounded two luxurious buses that
were used to bring the arrested voters from Lagos
and Jos for the exercise. INEC had last week disclosed
that there w ere 93,000 fake voters in Anambra State.
The 'imported voters,' who were arrested at Igbariam,
Anambra East Local Government Area said they had
been mobilised and brought in to register by the
Ifeanyi Ubah Fan Club, a political group made up of
the supporters of Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah, one of the
governorship aspirants for the November 16 election in
the state.
One of the detainees, Mr. Bonaventure Ofieli, who said
he was a trader based in Jos, said the Ifeanyi Ubah
Fan Club in Jos had provided them with the fund for
their trip to Anambra State to register for the election.
He said he hailed from Ozubulu in Ekwusigo Local
Government Area of Anambra State.
Ubah is a governorship aspirant of the Labour Party.
The party is due to hold its primaries on Wednesday in
Awka, the Anambra State capital.
But the Director-General of the Ifeanyi Ubah Campaign
Organisation, Chief Dan Ulasi, criticised the arrest of
the voters, saying there was nothing wrong in
mobilising registered voters to come home to vote.
He said the innocent citizens were being unnecessarily
punished for offering to obey a national call to
exercise their franchise.
He said the organisation might go to court to seek
remedy for the detained persons.
The Chairman of Anambra East Local Government, Mr.
Chinedu Obidigwe, said his attention had been drawn
to the registration unit in front of the palace of the
traditional ruler of Igbariam, Igwe N.N. Kelly by locals,
who claimed to have noticed strange faces about to
get registered.
He said on getting to the unit, he interviewed the
strangers, who admitted that they were brought in to
register as voters but that they were not residing in
the area.