Gbenro Adesina
The on-going local government election in Oyo State has been characterised by some hitches including insufficient ballot papers in some units, police extortion, ballot box snatching, violence and unavailability of security operatives.
PrimeStarNews gathered that in Ibarapa North, Igangan town, ward 6, unit 5 with 370 registered voters was given 100 ballot papers, another unit with 285 registered voters was also given 100 ballot papers and Oyo West was given 200 ballot papers, which was not enough.
The insufficient ballot papers in Ibarapa North was as a result of the staff of the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) sending about 2000 rather than over 3000 ballot papers expected.
However, OYSIEC officials compromised the election in Ibarapa North, when they had to send some electorate to collect more ballot papers.
One of the electorate complained about this development saying, “I was surprised when the OYSIEC official could not go to their office to collect more ballot papers and they have to send non-official. How do we know that those sent may not do something funny with the ballot papers collected? I think it was really wrong for the OYSIEC officials to have sent non-staff to collect such sensitive materials”.
In Oyo West, the Election Officer apologised for the insufficient ballot papers, saying that OYSIEC staff in the ward were overwhelmed with the turnout, which they were not expecting.
He said, “We did not know that electorate will turn out this massive. We did not know that people will come out this much. I have called our office and I was told that they are already bringing more ballot papers for us. Before, our experience is that out of about 200 registered voters in a unit, only 50 voters might turn out. I assure that those who have not voted will surely vote when more papers are brought”.
In Apata Area, policemen were alleged of harassing, intimidating and arresting the electorate and extorting money from them.
Some of the voters said, “Police are not allowing us in Apata. Despite the fact that we show them our voters cards, they pursue us with their Micra cars and arrest us. They are even threatening to kill. We do not know why they are doing this”.
There was a major crisis in Eruwa under Ibarapa East Local Government, where some people protested. They burnt tyres on the roads and attacked some innocent citizens.
In Igboora, ward 5, unit 1, armed thugs caused chaos for about 45 minutes and wounded some individuals including parties’ agents. It was gathered that during the crisis, policemen and other security agent fled from the unit except some members of the Amotekun Corp.
However, some soldiers stormed the unit to restore normalcy.
The electorate and party agents also complained about unavailability of security agents, stressing that there are some wards or units without policemen or members of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Ironically, as at the time of filing this report, election is yet to be held in Oye, in Ibarapa North.
As at the time of filing this report, counting of votes is on-going in all the polling units in the state
