 Suspected members of IPUB engaged the police for over three hours at Oshumogo Junction during the supplementary governorship elections in the state. The development made joint security operatives to block the Oshumogo Junction. The suspected Biafran agitators aimed at disrupting the poll in Anambra state. The development caused residents to desert the area. Now joining us live is plus TV Africa political correspondent, Marianne O'Conn. Marianne covered the election on the 6th and she's here to give us more update on what she saw live in Anambra state and the Ihala election. Hello, Marianne. Hi Maureen, thank you for having me. First of all, it was so good having you on ground in Anambra. Tell us again a recap of what you saw. Well, for the most part, in different parts other than Ihala, which is obviously a troubled spot, elections seemed to was, you know, it seemed less, it was, you know, quiet, it was calm. The only issue that most of the polling units across the state had was the issue with the beavers, which was unable to capture, you know, the voters and also slowed down the process, which made Inaq at the end of the day decide that they were going to continue the election until the last person had voted. But then of course, elections did not happen in Ihala and Orumba and Noss. But the issue of Orumba and Noss was not necessarily that elections didn't hold, but there was a person who had complained that they were forced to sign the results sheets against their will. But that issue has been dealt with, obviously. And then of course, we were now left with the Ihala situation, where Inaq had decided the elections would hold today. Now, from the feelings that I've gotten from our stringers there in Ihala, elections didn't start early. It was supposed to start at 10. Remember that Inaq shifted the change of the time from 8.30 to 2.30 p.m. and moved it to 10 a.m. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. But as 11.30 a.m. this morning, elections had not started and there were a few teasing problems. But other than that, today the beavers worked exceptionally well. The issues were recorded, apart from the fact that we had a few hiccups with the gunmen and of course soldiers. But after a while, people were able to come back and cast their votes. As we speak, votes have been counted. At 9 p.m. later today, there's going to be a coalition at the local government coalition center in Ihala, local government area. Now, oftentimes when elections are conducted, you have issues of late arrival of Inaq officials and did you see that when you went to Anambra? And I also noticed that the same situation was recorded in Ihala. What does that say about Inaq's level of preparedness for this election? Well, not in any way trying to hold brief for Inaq, but Inaq did have a lot of logistic problems to deal with that. A lot of people did not get information that they were not privy to. We people like us didn't really know that Inaq was having to deal with the NURTW. And Inaq actually was facing a case of somewhat of a sabotage, but Inaq had to do whatever it took to make sure that the elections held because the truth is we all do not know what goes on in the back end, but Inaq had to deal with a lot of things. Remember that even core members who were trained to be ad hoc staff had some of them were pulling out. And this posed a serious problem for Inaq, two days to the election. So Inaq had to have a contingency plan to make sure that people showed up. Now for my polling units, which was Amor Bia 1 and it was the polling unit 001 to 003, which was also a super rack center and a coalition center for that area. The electoral officers showed up early, the two arrays that were running that area showed up pretty early. The voters themselves showed up pretty early. At 7.30am, 8am, we saw voters already coming in. Some came with their seats, husbands, wives, more women even showed up to cast their votes. And it showed me the preparedness of not just Inaq, but even the people were eager to cast their votes and make sure that their voices were heard. So yes, Inaq does have some of these problems once in a while. And let's not forget, Ihiala is about two hours, if not two hours, 30 minutes from Okaq. It can be, you know, a distance plus the issues of insecurity. All of these things had to be taken into concentration. But I'm not in any way saying that Inaq does not have a place in the blame. Well, until 9pm, we wouldn't be able to know who has won Ihiala. And Ihiala, by the way, has the seventh largest number of people in Anambra, 148,407. And of the votes collected already, the 20 local government areas, Chaos Soludo is leading. How would you assess the fight and those who contested for this election? Well, as of this morning, the PDP, APC and other candidates were super hopeful that Ihiala will be a game changer, even though the flag that is being flown by Chaos Soludo seemed to be leading. They seemed hopeful because of the number of votes that they thought would be coming from Ihiala. But then again, we've also noticed that in the case of Anambra, it's always very difficult to get more than 20 or 25% of voters coming out to cast their votes. So if 20% of 148,000 comes out to vote, I don't really know if that's going to be a game changer. But then it's not my place to say we'll wait till I like besides who the winner is later tonight. Talking about that, that percentage of voters turning out, in that, in one of the interviews you had, I think it was on a Sunday, you interviewed some women and you, you had observed that more women came at this time. Did that in any way change the game? You think? Well, I think that it was a good thing. It changed the game, not in terms of the numbers, but it changed the game or the narrative that women never really come out to vote. And women, you know, are never, never really heard, you know, when it comes to voting and the electoral process. But I was super impressed. And I did tweet about it. It's on my Twitter handle. And I did say that I'm so, I'm in awe of Anambra women, because this is something that every Nigerian woman should borrow and live from. The women came, I saw women who carried their babies on their backs. I saw the women who were physically impaired, they showed up to vote. I saw reverend sisters from the, you know, the monastery, they all showed up. Women came out more in their numbers. And for me, I was really super impressed. I saw a young lady. This was her first time to be casting her votes as a Nigerian. She just turned 20. And she was on the phone after she voted, telling her friends that you're at home grumbling and you should be here, casting your votes to make sure that you change the things that you're grumbling about. And for me, she just endeared me to the Anambrians. And I had to keep saying, shouting at the top of my voice, that every single Nigerian woman should stop, you know, playing second fiddle and come out, let the women's voices be heard. Anambra women seems to be blazing the trail in this regard. And I hope that they keep up. Did you have female contenders? Well, another thing I also noted, thank you for bringing that up. I was saying that it's only the People's Democratic Party that had a female deputy governor candidates, you know, they didn't have any women on their tickets, except for the PDP. And I was saying to my camera person that I find this really, you know, confusing that in the 21st century, in 2021, most political parties are still going for men. And I said, does this mean that the women in those political parties do not have some form of power or structure in their local government areas or in the States? So that's also a question that needs to be asked, because most of these men who are deputized or used as deputies on these tickets, where the excuse was that, look, these people have a structure. They have people that can, you know, bring, they have like a base that they can bring into the party, but the women may not necessarily have that. And I think that that's also a challenge to women, not just in Anambra, but women in the political parties across the country to begin to build a base for themselves. Well, thank you so much, Marianne. We just have to stop now. Keep our fingers crossed for nine and let's see what happens at that time. Thank you so much, Marianne. Marianne Okon is plus TV Africa's plus politics host.