Suspected political thugs on Friday disrupted the Independent National Electoral Commission’s training programme going on in Imo State.
The training, our correspondent gathered was for INEC’s ad hoc staff for the February 16 and March 2 elections.
The training which was going on at Dikenafai Technical School in the Ideato South Local Government Area of the state was disrupted by the thugs who were armed with weapons.
One of the trainees who identified himself as Justice told our correspondent that the thugs jumped into the hall midway into the training session and chased everybody away, including the instructors and made away with the equipment.
He said, “While the training programme was going on some boys jumped in and ordered everybody to leave. Before we could say a word,they had started chasing us out of the hall. They had to take the equipment including the megaphone.”
“Nobody wants to die because of ad hoc staff job. We had to immediately run away. That was how the training ended arbitrarily. We don’t know how a training program by INEC should pose a treat to people.”
The INEC Public Relations Officer in the state, Emmanuel Opara, could not categorically state if the disrupted training program would be rescheduled.
The spokesperson said that she would reach out to the commission’s Returning Officer in the Ideato South LGA.
-PUNCH-
