Sporadic shootings by heavily armed soldiers have dispersed voters exercising their franchise at different polling units in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State.

On Saturday, the governorship election in the state was declared inconclusive over the violence that stalled the polling exercise at Ihiala.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: INEC Declares Anambra Governorship Election Inconclusive

However, residents of the area have lamented that the heavy military presence and sporadic shootings around polling units are scaring voters away. They also said that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have refused to show up at different polling units.

Alfonsus Igbanugo, a registered at the Central School, Uzuoakwa Ward 3, told FIJ that scores of voters waited for hours in the polling unit but there was no INEC official to conduct the voting exercise.

“We’re nowhere to cast our votes but we’re waiting for INEC,” he said. “People are here, people are ready to vote.”

FIJ observed that voters were fleeing their polling units, seeing soldiers on patrol shooting sporadically in the air.

Several voters in the area told FIJ that gunshots and reports of violence were tools employed by mischief makers to disrupt the election exercise.