vanguardngr.com
In Lagos State, the governorship and legislative elections were marred by apathy in most areas despite the significant improvement in logistic management for the polls.
Two corpses found in Oshodi and along Apapa – Oshodi Road were also linked to the polls.The accreditation and voting processes were most uneventfully in many polling stations. There were no incidents or problems with the card reader and queues were absent as people went home after accreditation and came back to vote in the afternoon.
However, leaders of the two major parties in the state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC and Chief Bode George of the PDP, in separate interviews, alleged conspiracies directed against their parties.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, REC, Mr. Akin Orebiyi, however, washed the INEC from all such allegations, saying the conduct of yesterday’s polls was a significant improvement on the presidential and National Assembly elections. According to him, the commission was able to come out with the improvements after internal deliberations.
fashola being accredited
Speaking to reporters after casting his vote at about 1.45 p.m. at Polling Unit 047, Sunday Adigun Street, Alausa, Ikeja, Tinubu flayed what he described as the deliberate attempt to intimidate voters against the APC. “Throughout the week before the election, there were lots of gunshots across the state. That is scary to the people and that is why they didn’t even come out. That is the method of rigging,” he said.
APC leader also alleged that the PDP-led Federal Government relegated the Lagos Commissioner of Police, CP, Mr. Kayode Aderanti, to the level of an area commander to enable it perfect it’s plan to compromise the elections.
According to him, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu, took over the commissioner’s functions. He, however, commended the improvement in the conduct of the elections as compared with the presidential and National Assembly polls two weeks ago. The assertions of manipulations were, however, dismissed by Lagos PDP leader, Chief Bode George. Speaking to Sunday Vanguard shortly after voting at Evans Street, George described Tinubu’s allegations as laughable.
He said: “Who said it? Is it Bola or their noise maker? If it is their noise maker, he is from another planet. They wanted the government and they have gotten it. You cannot continuously be lying to yourself. We are trying to rig, with whom and for what? 16 years, they stayed on the saddle here in Lagos, what is the outcome? The people say they are tired of the APC and they are hounding them out of the system. The APC says we want to rig, let them say that to the marines, they are clowns”.
The accusation was also dismissed by the Chairman of the PDP in the state, Mr. Tunji Shelle. The Minister of State for foreign affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, on his part, accused the APC of waging a war of intimidation against PDP supporters. When asked if the alleged intimidation was responsible for the voter apathy, he said “it could be.” His words: “Don’t forget that some sections of our soceity were threatened with death. To that extent, we have to take stock of what transpired in Lagos. From the feedback, it could be responsible.”
Governor Babatunde Fashola refused to be dragged into arguments on the cause of the apathy by voters. He, however, expressed his optimism that the APC governorship candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, would win the polls. “I am always optimistic of any contest. I am optimistic Ambode will emerge the winner,” the governor said after voting in Surulere. His deputy, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, told Sunday Vanguard at her polling unit at Egbeda Round-About in Alimosho that voters thought the presidential election was more important than the governorship.
She also pointed at improvements in the functionality of the card reader and other logistics. The Deputy Governor, however, dismissed the allegation that many non-indigenes did not turn out because of the threat by the Oba of Lagos. “He was not a politician or an APC member. Besides, that issue was resolved before the election. I think that basically, people wanted change at the centre and that was why they came out en-masse to vote during the last election. They must have already concluded that continuity be sustained at the state level”, she added.
The PDP governorship candidate in the state, Mr Jimi Agbaje, had, at the beginning of the day, expressed concern on the apathy by voters. Agbaje spoke to newsmen when he did his accreditation at Ward 2 Polling Unit 009, Duala/Abraham Adesanya Street, Apapa. Police commissioner parades Lagos. The Lagos Police Commissioner, Aderanti, yesterday, paraded Lagos during the elections, spending time around Alimosho and arresting vehicles that were not on special duty that dared to come out.
Financial inducement/refreshments
Sunday Vanguard observed some refreshments in certain centres during the accreditation process and voters alleged some youths came out and shared money to voters on voting grounds. Some voters collected the money and some turned it down. In the same vein, some voters collected the refreshments and some turned them down according to our sources. One source said,” I cannot be bought with money. This is one decision I have taken upon myself and nobody will swing my votes to favour his candidate. I didn’t take their money. And I didn’t take any refreshment from them. Am I a hungry man to be swayed by a bottle of La Casera and doughnut?”
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