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THE much awaited November 16, governorship election in Anambra State had come and gone. But its echo is still reverberating in the four corners of our dear country, Nigeria. The sound bites from some political pundits, each with their selfish motives, are trying very hard to justify the unjustifiable fact that the Independent National Electoral Commission bungled the election which was supposed to showcase its preparedness to handle the 2015 national election. There are others who are most vociferous in giving credit to INEC for holding a peaceful election even though it is still inconclusive. The election quagmire in Anambra happened despite all the assurances given to Nigerians by the INEC that the election in Anambra state would be free and fair in line with one man one vote mantra. It turned out to be a most unfair exercise the country has witnessed in recent times. Not only were the logistics for the exercise poor, INEC officials connived with some political fraudsters to disenfranchise voters who came out in their numbers to cast their votes.

This deprivation was mostly done in the strongholds of the main contenders for the number one job in the state. The worst thing that happened in the shambolic election was that even one of the candidates could not find his name and those of the members of his family in the election register. There are allegations and counter-allegations on the authenticity of the voter register which was used for the election and the one INEC gave to political parties. Attahiru Jega, INEC chairman, did not help matters when he even admitted on air that an INEC official bungled the distribution of election materials meant for the Idemili North Local government area. Even though he refused to name the recalcitrant official, Realnews covered the election live and was able to ferret out the name of suspect who is now in police custody and his accomplice from INEC office in Abuja, who went round to collect the result sheets when election had not been concluded in the area. There are many more revelations about the election which unequivocally showed that INEC murdered sleep in Anambra state which we captured in our cover story for this week entitled: Anambra Election: INEC’s Disastrous Outing. It was written by Anayo Ezugwu, our hardworking reporter who covered the election. Enjoy it.

Maureen Chigbo
Editor

Email: mechigbo@yahoo.com  |  mechigbo@realnewsmagazine.net

— Dec. 2, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT