The 180 persons arrested by the Imo State Police Command have insisted they are election monitors and not thugs as claimed by the police.

In a statement on Friday, the suspects said they are members of the Justice and Equity Organization, JEO, and they had been accredited as observer in the November 16 Gubernatorial election in Anambra State.

The Nigerian Bar Association, Friday, warned that rigging in tomorrow’s election can only be averted if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) corrects lapses from previous polls.

The association, at a press conference in Awka, said it expects “a gross improvement in the management and conduct of elections” by INEC. It said only a free and fair election can prevent the high level of complaints and tension recorded in various polling units in the past.

Anambra State was the first state in the country to hold an off season gubernatorial election in 2010 when the incumbent, Mr. Peter Obi was elected for a second term in office.

Obi had first emerged as governor in March 2006 when the Court of Appeal in Enugu ruled that he, and not Dr. Chris Ngige, was the winner of the April 2003 gubernatorial election.

COME Saturday, November 16, 2013, exactly six days from today, the 1,784,536 registered voters in Anambra State will line up in 4,608 polling units in the state to elect a new governor that will succeed Governor Peter Obi on March 17 next year. The figure was arrived at after INEC sifted unqualified voters, mainly double registrants, from the 2011 voters’ registration exercise, which had tentative registered voters of 2, 011,746. About 93000 people were said to be involved in double registration in the state and INEC has since said those involved will be prosecuted for violating a section of the Electoral Act.

NO fewer than 25 persons, who attended the weekly crusade at the Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry, Uke, in Idemili North local government area of Anambra State, lost their lives during a stampede at the end of the ceremony in the early hours of Saturday.