Enugu South Urban Rerun: Chaos as INEC Postpones Election for Third Time

Anxious voters were once again disappointed on Saturday as the rerun election for the Enugu South Urban State Constituency failed to take place.

NIGERIA NEWS 247 recalls that the Labour Party (LP) candidate for the State House of Assembly Constituency, Mr. Bright Ngene, was declared the winner of the March 18, 2023, House of Assembly election and was sworn in. However, the election was later nullified by the court for being inconclusive.

This marks the third attempt to hold the rerun election.

As early as 7 a.m., voters gathered at the affected polling units, but no officials from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were present.

Mr. Ngene, who was at the polling center, expressed his disappointment over the situation. He said there was no information provided to him or his party indicating that the election would not take place.

Ngene mentioned that there were rumors about the election being postponed and stressed that INEC, as a constitutional body, should act according to the law. He insisted that any postponement of an election should follow due process and that parties should be properly informed.

When journalists reached out to the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Enugu State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Chukwu, he confirmed that the election had been postponed.

“We cancelled the exercise on Wednesday. We issued a press release to inform the public that it would not hold,” he said.

When asked if a new date had been set, he replied, “No date yet; we hope that the commission will announce a new date soon.”

NIGERIA NEWS 247 notes that this is the third time the court-ordered rerun has encountered issues.

Previously, the REC in charge of Anambra State was brought in to conduct the election after the suspension of the Enugu REC. However, during the voting process, thugs disrupted the proceedings and destroyed voting materials, leading to the rescheduling of the election for today, Saturday, June 8, 2027.

When contacted about whether the postponement was communicated to his party, the LP Chairman in Enugu, Barr Casmir Agbo, declined to comment. “Go and ask INEC; direct your question to INEC. I decline to comment,” he said.

On the other hand, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the election, Hon. Sam Ngene, confirmed that the postponement was duly communicated to his party.