Nigeria Content Online

An aide to Chris
Ngige, a former governor of Anambra State, was yesterday arrested by
the police in the state over the illegal possession of election
materials belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC).

Kingsley Ezenwenyi
was arrested in his hotel room in Awka shortly after he visited the
commission’s office to copy the deployment list of electoral officers
released last Monday.

His activities drew
the attention of State Security Services officers attached to the
commission. He was trailed to his hotel in the outskirts of Awka where
he was discovered to be in possession of materials including election
result sheets and was promptly arrested.

A police source
said only three people were in the hotel – two males and one female –
and all were said to be members of the Action Congress of Nigeria.

The materials said
to be in his possession, according to the publicity secretary of INEC,
Frank Egbo include: Form EC8 A with serial number 01008997 (original
and duplicate copies), sixty copies of original Form EC8(R) which are
for publication of results of poll, 56 copies of Form EC8(B) which are
summaries of results from polling stations and collation of
Registration Area Level.

Illegal possession

The source said
when the suspect was asked to explain how he came to possess the
materials, he claimed he was working for INEC as a consultant to train
members of the ACN for the election.

But Mr Egbo said Mr Ezenwenyi was not working for the commission.

“He already has
result sheets for pasting results and it means his own results would
have been ready for publication before the conclusion of voting on
election day and if he does that, you know the kind of confusion that
would cause,” Mr Egbo said.

The spokesperson for the police, Emeka Chukwuemeka confirmed Mr. Ezenwenyi’s arrest.

“He was illegally
in possession of election materials,” Mr Chukwuemeka said, adding that
an investigation has been launched into the matter.

The spokesperson
for the ACN, Okelo Madukife, claimed ignorance of the development,
saying he would investigate the matter before talking further on it.

“How can I talk about what I don’t know? Let me ask a few questions. I don’t know what to say,” Mr Madukife said.