Awka — Governor Peter Obi of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) is on the verge of retaining his seat if feelers from Awka concerning the Anambra State election held on Saturday are anything to go by.

It emerged last night that Obi was coasting home to victory, having secured comfortable votes in 12 local government areas of the state.

Unconfirmed reports, however, said candidate of the Action Congress (AC), Chris Ngige was trailing Obi.

The local governments where Obi was said to have performed well at press time include: Aguata, Njikoka, Anaocha, Awka South, Awka North, Ihiala, Ekwusigo, Ogbaru, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Nnewi North and Nnewi South.

Regardless, Ngige who spoke to Sunday Independent is also claiming to be leading in Idemili North, Idemili South, Nnewi North, Nnewi South, Dunukofia and Ekwusigo Local Government Areas.

But the United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate, Godson Okoye diamissed the claims of Obi and Ngige, saying "it was too early in the day to take such positions."

But Saturday's poll came with its challenges even though it was dubbed peaceful by everybody.

A messy voter register used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), was all it took to put paid to the hope of a clean process that would have produced the next governor.

Instead of names of genuine voters, the register was fraught with foreign names who had nothing to do with the exercise.

For instance, former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme could not find his name in the register and was allowed to vote on personal recognition.

Obi was the only one among his family members that could vote, as the names of his wife, Margaret and his siblings were missing.

Other candidates, including Ngige, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chukwuma Soludo and Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Uche Ekwunife, also faced the same problem.

Apart from the irregularities in the voter register, the exercise also witnessed about three hours delay and more in most polling stations.

Ngige voted at about noon at his Umueze-Ide Ward One amid a tense situation as many voters who had arrived the polling unit without finding their names besieged him for solution.

But the exercise was largely peaceful, with few cases of violence and ballot snatching at Onitsha, Anambra East and Okija in Ihiala Local Government Area. About 134 people were arrested in Onitsha, 130 of them mercenaries allegedly hired from neighbouring states by politicians. Four were allegedly nabbed over ballot snatching.

Polling started in several wards at about 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., but most voters returned home frustrated when their names were missing in the voter register. Non-Igbo names dotted the register, confirming fear by independent election observers that the poll would turn out a ruse without credible voter's register.

In Onitsha North and South Local Government Areas, voting did not take place in most of the polling units, while two ballot boxes were snatched by suspected thugs in Ward 1.

Most voters in Isuofia, at Aguata Local Government Area, looked in vain for their names and so could not cast their ballot.

In Agulu Ward 19, Anaocha local government area, electoral officials arrived in a yellow N0 ANGH 123 and eight booklets of ballot papers containing 50 cards each were produced.

Sporadic shooting was witnessed in Osumenyi in Nnewi South Local Government following alleged disagreement among some supporters of a candidate over electoral materials. Two ballot boxes were also allegedly taken away there by unknown persons.

In Uga Ward I, Aguata local government area, materials did not arrive on time and when it did most voters did not find their names in the register, creating a deluge of disenfranchised voters.

Materials for four polling units were missing so only Uba voted, while his wife and elder brother, Ugochukwu, could not vote.

It was the same scenario almost everywhere.

Soludo confirmed that the exercise was peaceful, but lamented that most voters could not vote because correct names were not in the register.

An angry Uba lamented: "You people are all witnesses to what has happened here today. This is a total chaos and daylight robbery of people's right to choose their leader. I blame the system for what happened and it is indeed annoying that all the noise about free and fair elections is just for nothing and one wonders what would happen in 2011 general election in Nigeria."

It was no difference at Idemili North and South Local Government Areas, stronghold of Ngige who called the misnomer a "provocative act" but urged his supporters to remain calm and hopeful.

Ngige told angry voters: "Please do not disrupt anything. We have complained earlier on and we know that during the display of voters' register, your names came out but when they gave us the soft copy, we did not see your names, including my own, and they started searching and they later said they saw my name. I then told them to search very well again to bring every other names missing in the register.

"So I appeal to you people to be patient. We will bring chairs for you to sit down while they sort out the problem. Please, don't disrupt anything, maybe this is to provoke you in doing something that is not right. We don't want you to do anything that is not right in this constituency. I agree that what INEC has done is an act of provocation. Voting is starting very late, and it is about to 1p.m. now. I want you to exercise patience but we insist that they must add the time lost to enable every one of you to vote."

Asked if he thinks all that was deliberate, Ngige retorted: "It is deliberate and they have done so in all my strongholds. They know that Idemili North and South have the voting strength of about 220, 000 and these two local governments are my strongholds.

"I am holding INEC responsible for this, it might not be the Chairman, but some officials of INEC have done hatchet job here. And my chances have been affected by this because if they have disenfranchised three quarters of voting population from my stronghold, what is left?"

"My next line of action will be to petition the Resident Electoral Commissioner and Local Government Electoral Commissioner. This is deliberate,"

Ngige said, adding, "what happened shows that Nigeria has not come of age in democracy."

In Awka, Ward IV which was supposed to be located at Umuzocha village was inexplicably relocated to Permanent Site, behind the Government House, disenfranchising a large number of voters, although voters such as the Bishop of Awka, Rev. Simon Okafor, braved it and drove to the new location to cast his vote.

In Amatutu Ward II where Obi voted at about 3.30 p.m., the governor found out that no other members of his family outside himself could find their names in the register.

Obi expressed worry that such a situation disenfranchised voters when he met with the Electoral Officer of Anaocha at Neni.

It was the same scenario at Ezemba Hall ward II, in Umudim, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu's village.

A lot of voters there complained that they could not find their names in the register and therefore could not vote.

The register was instead filled with names of persons from the Northern and Western part of the country.

Such was the situation at Obiofia ward II Unit 006, Otolo Nnewi, in Wards II and I at Nawgu in Dunukofia local council, and in most polling stations across Anambra East Local Council.

In Anambra East, some polling stations recorded as few as two voters. For instance at Otuocha II ward II only two names - Joe Ofokansi, former Commissioner of Information, and one other person - were the only names in the register.

At Oche primary school ward II, in Otuocha, the register contained just four (identifiable) names. The photograph against three of the names was that of a fair-complexioned woman named Ifeoma Okoye, who had various ages.

Mike Ozekhome, leader of the INEC-constituted Election Monitoring Board (EMB) which monitored the exercise in Anambra North Senatorial district, initially threatened to shut down the station.

Ozokhome expressed dissatisfaction at what he saw on the ground. He said that at the Marine Police post, about 32 policemen with two water buses were ready to move INEC materials but there were no such materials on sight as at 12 noon.

"This is clear indication that some politicians are at work," he said.

At Otuocha Ward II, Unit 22, thugs alleged to have been imported from neighbouring states struck in the middle of the election and took away the ballot box.

At Neni, the Electoral Officer declined to comment on allegations that politicians who tried to reach him could not because he purposely put his mobile telephone off.

Obi lamented that despite all the assurances of Professor Maurice Iwu, the INEC Chairman, things could not go the right way.

"Virtually all members of my family could not be found in the register and that is worrisome", Obi said, noting that the situation report he got showed that this was the case in all parts of the state.

Ekwunife, candidate of the PPA, expressed outrage at the happening and confirmed that several thousands of voters were disenfranchised.

She questioned the rationale behind the incident, saying it is unfortunate that the people were being denied their right to express themselves in the electoral process.

APGA National Chairman, Victor Umeh, said that in some communities in Anaocha LGA voters register that was brought there does not contain the names of registered voters from the area.

"In some polling centres where you have about 700 voters, the INEC register will have only 14 voters," he lamented.

Umeh alleged that it was a sabotage meant to frustrate APGA since a bulk of the votes from the area would have been for the party since governor Obi and himself are from the council.

Regardless, Umeh said APGA was confident of victory and described the exercise as an improvement from the previous elections. "What we liked was INEC's determination to allow the people to vote. The result sheets were available in the LGAs and the exercise was free from ugly incidence," he told Sunday Independent.

While leaders of the PDP and other opposition parties lamented over poor conduct of the poll, Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu showered praises on INEC and security agents for a peaceful conduct of the exercise.

At Igwebuike Primary School Abagana in Njikoka, some election observers from the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) were sighted in a row with the electoral officials over the exclusion of names of hundreds of voters from the register.

First Vice President, Amichi Development Union, Sylvester Umeaku, told journalists that the community intends to protest the systemic exclusion to the highest authority in the country, stressing that all the names in the register were alien to them.

In Nnewi North, former President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, said that though he was lucky to see his name in the voters register at Enem ward, where he registered, over 75 per cent of the registered voters could not find their names.

Ikedife voted at around 12 p.m.

Of the 300 registered voters in Enem ward, Ikedife said, only 35 of them appeared in the register, adding that it appeared that many people were technically excluded from the polls.

Ikedife expressed doubts that the outcome would reflect the wishes of the people.