Voters Accuse Police In Lagos Of Indifference During Violence By Thugs At Polling Centres

By Bright Adewale

Many Lagos residents who were disenfranchised at Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections at some polling units as a result of violence unleased by some political thugs have accused police men attached to such centres of unprofessional conduct and a possible sellout to the attackers’ paymasters.

Some of the aggrieved voters who spoke to AtlanticNewsonline anonymously on Sunday narrated their experience at their polling units and expressed disappointment with the indifference exhibited by the police men assigned to their centres on security duty.

Some residents of Agric area of Ikorodu town whose polling unit was O65, Ajanguro UBE Primary School at Asolo said the number of registered voters at the polling unit was about 700 and even though most of the voters with their PVC had arrived the polling unit by 7am, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not come until 11am.

They explained that in spite of the officials lateness, they had come with ballot papers for only 27 voters. One of the officials soon after went back to fetch more materials and never returned until about 2pm.

According to their narration, once voting commenced again, some thugs suspected to be working for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate; Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to disorganise the queue by insisting that certain selected voters must vote before others suspected to be supporters of that other political parties.

They expressed dismay that the disruption of the voting process by the thugs happened in the full glare of the policemen assigned to the unit, but they pretended as if they were not there, even as the thugs threatened the voters who tried to challenge them.

Regrettably, soon after the thugs had had their way, the INEC officials declared that there was no more voting even though over 400 persons were yet to vote. They were eventually disenfranchised.

In Oshodi area of Lagos, a notorious APC supporter and Chairman of Lagos Motor Parks and Garage Management known as MC Oluomo reportedIy threatened to deal with any voter of Igbo extraction who failed to vote for Tinubu. The open threat was made audaciously in presence of uniformed policemen one of whom was seen in a trending video trying to appease Oluomo by tapping his shoulder.

In other polling units where thugs had field day in Lagos, there were some policemen but probably because they were not armed, chose to exhibit mute indifference while the thugs ravaged the centre like the case at the Lagos State University, Ojo.

Due to these day light oppression of voters, the Lagos State Labour Patty Chairman, Pastor (Mrs) Dayo Ekong on Sunday told INEC officials at the State Collation Centre that results from some Polling units in Lagos were not acceptable to the Labour Party since thousands of supporters in those areas were not allowed to vote by the thugs and their paymasters.

Even where voting had taken place in those polling units, the thugs came to burn or destroy the ballot papers before the counting of the votes. Some of such incidents occurred in areas where the APC was not sure of winning the election.