‘Suyi Ayodele – Benin
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Saturday cast his vote at the Oredo Local Government Area Ward Ward 4, polling unit 19, calling for a hastened process so as to accommodate the huge turnout of voters at the centre.
This was just some metres away from the Emokpae Primary School Mission Road Benin, centre where the governor voted, gun-wielding men seemed unit 42 voting unit on Butcher Street, off Mission road, and carted away the ballot boxes.
Speaking after exercising his franchise, Obaseki expressed satisfaction with the level of turnout of voters.
According to the governor, “Although INEC started a bit late in this centre, you can see the turnout is quite impressive. My concern is that the process should be hastened so that we can clear the crowd.
“From my own observation and three or four votings I witnessed, it is almost flawless.”
Reacting to the incident of ballot snatching, Obaseki intoned: “It is too early to snatch ballot because voting has not really taken place yet, we need to reconfirm that story. It doesn’t make sense to snatch a ballot box that doesn’t have ballot papers in it. We will check that and verify but I am confident because we made adequate preparations to ensure that every polling unit has at least five security personnel. If it is not the police, civil Defence or DSS.
“It is too early to make any conclusive statement, two hours into voting. We are going to go round and see what is going on across the state and population centres,” he added
Voting in most of the centres in Benin metropolis started very late.
In Ward 7, units 1-6 of Oredo Local Government Area for instance, materials and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials did not arrive until 10.20 am.
Edo state Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Oluwoye Iyamu, who was on the ground to vote at the centre, expressed displeasure over the late arrival of election materials and officials of INEC.
Speaking with journalists at Oredo Ward Iyamu said: “the materials and officials are just coming at about 9:30 when the election is supposed to start by 8:30.
“People have been here since waiting for them, but materials are just coming now and this is not good for the election.
“But we hope they would make up the lost time and they told us that anybody that is here would vote but this is not good for the election.”
Narrating her ordeals while the suspected thugs stormed the Oredo Ward 4, unit 42, one of the victims, Dayo Osula, said that they were waiting to vote when the thugs struck.
“We were waiting for our turn when the boys came, shooting and they took the ballot box away.
“As they were shooting, everyone including the police ran away and many ran into my father’s house. Then some policemen came and arrested two of my brothers, Kelvin Adun and Idugbowa Osula.”
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