Voting materials and electoral officers arrived late at many polling units in Lagos during Saturday’s local government elections in the state.
The chairmanship and councillorship elections were billed to start at 8.00 a.m. across all the polling units.
However, the elections did not start at 8.00 a.m. in most polling units monitored by NAN. Electoral officers and voting materials began to arrive at many polling units after 8.30 a.m.
There were no signs of voting materials or arrival of electoral officers at Polling Units 030, 031, and 029 located at Unity Nursery and Primary School, Hostel Bus Stop, beside a Mobil filling station in the Egbe-Agodo area, as at 8.00 a.m.
Only an agent of the All Progressives Congress was seen waiting at one of the polling units.
Some voters, who came out early, left after observing no signs of commencement of elections.
At Polling Units 014 on Authority Avenue, 012 and 049, all located at Egbe-Agodo, the situation was the same.
Late arrival of electoral officers was also witnessed at the seven polling units at Agege.
Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) had announced that electoral materials and officers would be expected to arrive at polling units by 7.00 a.m.
A Presiding Officer at Agege, Mrs Abiola Choice, attributed her late arrival to her polling unit to late distribution of election materials.
She said: “Even after we got the materials from the registration area centre, there was no vehicle to convey us to polling units.”
Mr Cornelius Stephen, a 90-year-old voter, who spoke with NAN in Agege, expressed disappointment that the electoral officers did not keep to time.
“You can see that it is already 8.00 a.m., yet only security personnel are present here at Agege Primary School, Ward 3,” he said.
At Epe, Eredo and Ikosi-Ejirin, a heavy downpour in the early hours delayed arrival of electoral officers and materials. It also made many voters not to come out early. The rain began at about 5.35 a.m.
Mr Deji Agunrege, a residents of Epe, told NAN that the rain might discourage especially the elderly and voters from distant places from coming out to vote.
At 8.48 a.m., electoral officers had yet to arrive at Polling Unit 021 located at Ohafia Junction, Ago Palace Way, Okota in Oshodi/Isolo Local Council Development Area.
Some residents were seen jogging and conversing in groups, while tricycle riders continued to ply the roads.
At Badagry, late arrival of electoral officers and election materials also characterised the elections at many polling units.
As of 8.48 a.m., electoral officials had yet to arrive at Polling Unit 020 located at Mowo Town Hall.
Festac Town in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area also recorded late arrival of electoral officers and elections materials.
The officers and materials had not arrived at polling units in Wards B2, C, K as at 9.15 a.m.
Pastor Emmanuel Okigwe, Secretary of the Labour Party at Ward C, told NAN that he was worried at the lateness.
“We are witnessing a lot of irregularities. Our party was unable to inspect the materials. Even at midnight, they still had not brought them,” he alleged.
A septuagenarian, Mr Akindare Adetifa, also expressed disappointment at the late arrival of electoral officers. He said that, in the past, elections always started early.
Electoral officers and materials were ready at some Egbe/Idimu area as at 9.00 a.m. but there were no voters.
Some of the polling units monitored by NAN are 042 at Modupe Shitta, 04 at Yusuf Olatunji, 05 at Olojo/Holmes, 027 at Banjo, and 016 on Lamina Street, all under Egbe/Idimu Ward 5.
A mix-up in addresses of some polling units caused a delay in commencement of voting at Egbe-Agodo.
At Polling Unit 051, Oguntoyibo, an electoral officer, who did not want to be named, told NAN that his team was unable to set up voting booths because its address was incorrect.
“We are not in the right location. The address we were given belongs to another polling unit, so we couldn’t set up as expected.
“We have called our supervisor. He is coming possibly with a bus to take us to our polling unit,” he said at about 9.00 a.m.
In many other areas, voting also started at 9.00 a.m.
In Polling Units 040, 042 at Palace Way and Polling 030, 031 and 029 at Unity Nursery and Primary School, as well as Polling Units 018, 019, and 027 located at Muslim College, all in Agodo Egbe, started voting around 9.00 a.m.
Voters were seen coming one after the other to cast their votes. After voting, most of them left.
On Lagos Mainland Local Government Area, voters waited for election materials and electoral officers in many polling units monitored by NAN.
As at 9.25 a.m., voters were still gathered at various polling units awaiting the arrival of the officers and materials.
Accreditation and voting eventually started at 8.50 a.m. and 9.10 a.m. in some locations.
Notably, polling units 002, 005, and 007 in Ward E, as well as units 011, 015 and 004 in Ward C, experienced significant delays.
Wards F, G, and A also witnessed delayed material distribution.
They also recorded low voter turnout as at the time of filing the report.
On the other hand, there was a strong turnout at units 008 and 009 in Ward D as well as in Wards B and I.
Speaking with NAN, Mr Olayiwola Sholagbade, a voter at Ward D, Unit 009, said: “We are still hopeful. Many are indoors watching as events unfold on television and radio.”
In Ikorodu, Mrs Folashade -Olabanji-Oba, Vice Chairman of Ikorodu Local Government Area, praised voters for peaceful conduct.
Olabanji-Oba, also Chairman, Association of Vice Chairmen of Nigeria, voted at Polling Unit 01 at Isele. She urged eligible voters to come out en masse and vote.
At Polling Unit 119 at Mile 12, voting started at 8.10 a.m. while the exercise started at Polling Unit 115 at 8.25 a.m.
Voting began at Polling Unit 030 also at Mile 12 at 8.40 a.m. and took off at polling Unit 050 also at 8.51 a.m.
At Polling Unit 004, Opposite Adamson House, Ojogbe, electoral officers began arranging for voting material at 8:58 a.m.
LG election went on smoothly – Lagos CP
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos Command, Mr Olohundare Jimoh, said the Saturday local government election was peaceful across the State.
Jimoh made the remark in Ikorodu while speaking with journalists during a security monitoring tour of police area commands and divisions.
He said the electoral process had been orderly, with no major incidents reported.
“The police deployment is in place, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission officials are also doing their work.
“People have been coming out to exercise their franchise and there has not been any disturbance of peace anywhere across the state.
“We want to encourage voters to come out and cast their votes, as there is still time before the statutory closing hour of 3 p.m.
“We will continue to maintain this level of deployment and ensure that the whole process is peaceful throughout, ” he said.
The commissioner said that the command had already deployed enough personnel to all the collation centres.
“We are going to have more personel on ground at the collation centres to ensure that there is adequate security during the collation and during announcement of result. We have done our deployment thoroughly and massively.
“We are equally going to be on ground because after the election, there will be celebrations and we will not want any disturbance of peace across the state. So far we are doing good and we are going to end well, ” the police boss said.
According to him, the command has deployed 16 gunboats that can put the enemy at bay and suppress any issue of uprising in the waterways.
“We deployed the combat boats to the rural and urban waterine areas to tackle any threats, ” he said.
