By Tony Edike

ENUGU – GOVERNORSHIP candidate of Labour Party, LP, in Enugu State, Chief Okey Ezea, and 35 others, were yesterday arraigned before an Ibagwa Magistrate Court in Igbo-Eze South local government area of Enugu State for alleged electoral offences.

They were charged for alleged  threat of violence and attempt to disrupt collation and announcement of election results at Ibagwa Aka in Igbo-Eze South council during last Saturday’s National Assembly elections.

Most of the accused persons were arrested in the council by soldiers during the election and handed over to the state police command which charged them to court yesterday.

They pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them by the police prosecutor.

Counsel for the accused persons, however, applied for their bail which was granted by the presiding magistrate, Emma Ezema.

The Labour Party governorship candidate and the party’s House of Assembly candidate in the area were granted bail on self-recognition, but others were given stringent bail conditions.
Each of the 34 accused persons was granted bail in the sum of N500,000 with four sureties who must be resident  within the jurisdiction of the court.

Chief Ezea, who was invited by the Criminal Investigations Department, CID, of the State Police Command on Monday, ahead of his arraignment yesterday, said he had gone to INEC office at Ibagwa Aka with some of his supporters at 10pm last Saturday to report  that some officials of the state government allegedly snatched some ballot boxes during the election.

He said rather than investigating the report, officials of the state government ordered the soldiers  to arrest the complainants.