#LagosLGPolls: Late arrival of voting materials mars process

Voters in Saturday’s local government elections in Lagos complained about the late arrival of voting materials in many wards in the state.

Also not spared by the ugly development is Agege, the home of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, who couldn’t cast his vote as at 2.00pm, because the material didn’t arrive on time.

According to information gathered, after waiting for a long time for the materials all to no avail, the Speaker had to return home with the promise that he would come back to cast his vote when the materials eventually arrived.

Read also: #LagosLGPolls: Ambode votes in Epe

As at the time of filing this report, it could not be ascertained at what time Obasa eventually cast his vote, but indications later emerged he cast his at around 3:00pm.

A chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and factional chairman of the party in Lagos, Mr Segun Adewale, condemned the conduct of the exercise, especially in Alimosho LG and Agbado-Oke Odo LCDA, where he said that up till 2:00pm, there were no ballot papers for those contesting for chairmanship position, but that all were councillors.

Meanwhile, some political party agents in Lagos State on Saturday decried the poor turnout of voters in the ongoing council polls in the state.

Mr Omisore Adeyemi, the Party agent for APC in Polling Unit 026, Ward F, Cafe/Awolowo Way in Ikeja LG, said: “This process started normally and peaceful without disturbance.”

“What we discovered here is the low turnout of voters, maybe because of rain. We are still expecting people to come out.”

The Party Agent for the PDP in same unit, Mr Jubril Olalekan said “The election is not really impressive enough, people have shown apathy to the process.”

Olalekan, however, alleged that there were some electoral malpractices the unit where voters without Permanent Voter Cards were allowed to vote.

He said that due process should start from the grassroots to sanitise the nation’s electoral system.

Mr Adedeji Adesanya, a Party Agent for Accord Party at the same unit also decried the poor turnout for the polls.

Also, Mr Wale Kehinde, the PDP Party Agent in polling unit 027, Ward A in Agbado-Oke Odo-LCDA said, “The voting is going on fine but people are not turning out as expected. We are not satisfied with this turnout.”

In the same unit, Mr Matthew Olaniyi, the Party Agent for AD “the turnout is very low, may be because of the early morning rain. The way things are going, it seems it will affect it”.

In the same unit, Mr Lateef Majekodunmi, the Party Agent for All Progressives Congress (APC) said: “The turnout is low because so many people do not have PVC. It is not rain, the rain has stopped, it is the PVC.”