…calls on 2.5m Anambra PVC holders to come out and vote massively without fear of intimidation
…commends House Speaker for attracting roads and other constituency developments to Ogbaru
(Enugu, Nigeria: Wednesday, Nov 5, 2025): The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, founded since 2008 is strongly calling on the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Armed Forces, especially those in-charge of Anambra State Police Command, Zone 13 Police Zonal Headquarters, Ukpo, Nigerian Naval Base, Ogbaru, Nigerian Army’s 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha and its 82 Division Headquarters, Enugu, to totally refrain from threatening and scaring away registered voters in Anambra State numbering 2.82m with over 2.5m of them as PVC holders. Such threatening of fire and brimstone on air, if continued, are capable of scaring away many, if not most of the 2.5m PVC holders, stop them voting governorship candidates of their choice in the State Governorship Election holding on Nov 8, 2025 which is in three days’ time and return the State to the rank of “the governorship election lowest voting State in Nigeria”. As a leading Rights and Democracy advocacy voice and stakeholder in the State’s democratic process since 1999, predating our founding in 2008, it is our observation that such “gun-culture threats” threats have become a recurring decimal in the Anambra Governorship polls since 2000s.
This, the named security agencies had consistently done or engaged in using militarization and weaponization of voting environments and stifling of civic spaces especially through the so called “show of force” including open street patrols with armored tanks, RPGs, explosives and war battle ready officers and personnel who go about singing war songs and using death threatening words in voting environments and other open arenas especially in broad day light. The deployed or drafted security agencies and their officers and personnel also engage in reckless and massive issuance of inflammatory and threatening statements and allied media boasts using lethal words such as “crushing troublemakers”, “neutralizing hoodlums”, etc.; followed by public parading of hundreds of arrested persons in a bizarre and inhuman manner (stripped half naked and inflicted with bruises), after which not only that the victims ended up being innocent, but also ransomed in custody and returned to their homes and other social clusters to tell the story including instantly convincing others to stay indoors and never to vote again. From available records, the security forces have been joined to make voting environments very hostile for vulnerable voters by non-state actors including separatist agitators, politically sponsored thugs and other violent entities. This was especially the case across the State in 2013, 2017 and 2021.
We therefore call on the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army or military across Anambra and South-East to ensure that their pre-election and election day security operations and law enforcements are well coordinated by being proactive, scientific, tactically noiseless and intelligence-driven; capable of ensuring that Anambra voters massively turnout and securely and safely vote candidates of their choice in the Nov 8, 2025 governorship poll.
Timeline Of Low Voter Turnout In Anambra: The State has recorded the lowest number of voters’ turnout especially in the past Governorship elections despite having the largest number of registered voters and PVC holders in the South-East. Apart from the April 2003 Governorship Election during which the collected unannounced results credited to the actual winner (Obi) were about 235,000, out of “1.8m registered voters”; during which INEC bogusly posted “1.3m cast votes”, leading to over three years of protracted post-election litigations that started in Sept 2003 and ended on March 15, 2006. In 2010, total of 302,000 valid votes were cast out of “1.84m registered voters”, out of which, the winner (Obi) secured only 93,000 votes from projected “600,000 living voters” or about 50% or about 10% if counted from INEC Voter Register for the State, flooded with 1.2m “dead voters” as against the 600, 000 “living voters”. It was in the 1999 presidential and governorship polls that out of the State’s 2.2m registered voters, about 1.02m (46%) voted. In 2013 Governorship Poll, out of 1.77m registered voters for the State, only 465,891 (25%) validly voted, with the winner (Obiano) scoring 180,177 votes. In 2017, out of 2,064m registered voters, only 448,711 (21%) voted, out of which, the winner (Obiano) scored 234,071 votes. In 2021, out of 2,466.5m registered voters, only 253,388 (about 10.5%) validly voted, out of which, the winner (Soludo) scored 112,229 votes. In this year’s Nov 8, 2025 Governorship Poll, 2.82m have been registered as voters with more than 2.5m PVC holders.
Commending Anambra Speaker For Attracting Development Projects To Ogbaru: Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Somtochukwu Udeze, PhD, deserves our special commendation for attracting some development projects including road reconstruction and about eleven other development projects to his Constituency of Ogbaru, Anambra State since 2023 alone. including the recently awarded contract for reconstruction of Upper Acha Street and School Road in Iyiowa Layout, valued at N2.3b, awarded by Governor Charles Soludo-led Government of Anambra State in early Sept 2025. Among the eleven constituency projects in his name included renovation of teachers’ quarter at Community Primary School Umunankwo, attraction of undergraduate educational grant of N10m, installation of solar street lights at Iyiowa and boreholes at Atani Central School, St James Anglican Church, Iyiowa, etc.; renovation of some schools and attraction of palliatives on a number of existing street roads in Ogbaru including School Road and Mission Road, etc.
However, urgent attention of the Anambra House Speaker and Government of Anambra State is drawn and urged to rehabilitate Iyiowa-Market-Ihitenansa-New Road (Abazuonu)-Ibekwe-Lower Acha-Madonna Catholic Church Road. The Road, first constructed by the Obi Government in 2012-2013, has failed, needing urgent rehabilitation. The Speaker’s attention is also drawn to the collapse of sanitary facilities in some public schools in Ogbaru especially at Community Secondary School, Atani, where contractors have also abandoned work at the School’s SS1 L-Shape Building, with its roofs and windows presently dilapidated. Some of these schools are also found to be grappling with vandals and other criminals especially at the Community Secondary School, Atani where they recently carted away sumo machines, lab equipment and the principal’s office air conditioners, etc. The School also requires proper fencing, adequate security and so on. Urgent attention should also be given to the Iyiowa Community Primary School which has been a protracted victim of flooding and building dilapidation. The indigenes and non-indigenes of the area are hereby called upon to come out in their large numbers to vote in the Governorship Poll.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety)
Emeka Umeagbalasi
Criminologist and Researcher
Head, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esquire
Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Dept. of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Chidinma Udegbunam, Esquire
Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Dept. of Campaign and Publicity
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Digital Contacts:
Mobile/WhatsApp Lines: +2348100098016, +2349130156872
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: https://intersociety-ng.orghen
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