The Anambra Police Command on Monday said it stopped the Awka Development Union election on Saturday to prevent crisis.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Nkeiruka Nwode, told journalists that the planned election generated much tension, making the police to stop it to forestall untoward situation.
She maintained that the deployment of policemen was to maintain peace and order in the capital city, saying that security reports revealed that some hoodlums planned to cause mayhem during the election.
Nwode added that the command would not want such development.
The Awka Development Union of Nigeria election could not hold on Saturday at the Emmaus House in Awka as scheduled due to the police action.
The President-General of the community, Sir Tony Okechukwu, in an interview with Southern City News justified the police’s action.
He said the police acted within the ambit of the law.
Okechukwu said certain people who belonged to the same union wanted to use the situation to cause mayhem in the community.
He said there was a pending case about the election in the Court of Appeal in Enugu, arising from an Awka High Court judgment, which was in favour of the opposition.
He said “Now that an application for stay is pending at the Court of Appeal and records of appeal transmitted, can Awka High Court proceed in execution? Of course, the answer is no.”
He called on aggrieved members of his community to sheathe their swords and work in the interest and for the development of town.
“We can’t act as if we are against the state government. The government is doing well in Awka, we need to support it’, the President General stated.
The opposition led by Emmanuel Okechukwu and Emeka Onyeaka, both lawyers, had alleged that the Awka town union election was frustrated by a certain government official for selfish reasons.
They said the proper thing to do in the circumstance was to conduct the community’s election as ordered by the Awka High court irrespective of the pendency of the matter at the Court of Appeal.
PUNCH
