Voting process disrupted, ballot boxes carted away in Surulere

Soldiers Arrest Five For Election Violence
Disruption of the voting process and carting away of ballot boxes were, yesterday, recorded in some polling units in Surulere Local Council of Lagos State.

Some political thugs, around 10 am, invaded voters at polling units at Karounwin, Soyinka, and Jimoh Ojoku streets in the Itire area of Surulere. They shot sporadically into the air. As a result, the electorate in the queue had to run away, including the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) ad-hoc staff.

Voting recommenced some minutes after the thugs left the scene, only for the thugs to return again, more daring. They not only tore the voters’ list pasted on the walls by the polling units but also attempted to snatch and took away some thumb-printed ballot papers.

Thereafter some policemen arrived the scene, though some soldiers later joined them to maintain peace and order.The same scenario happened in Muyiwa Opaleye and Aguda areas where the voting process was disrupted, but security officers later restored sanity for voting to continue.

A security officer, who led some military officers to maintain peace and order at Opaleye Street, said that five thugs were arrested in connection with election violence.

At Erinono Primary School, Johnson Bus Stop, the ballot box for the presidential candidates was smashed, while the boxes for the House of Representatives and Senate candidates were carted away.
It was observed that security personnel were not deployed to some polling units, which gave room for miscreants to perpetrate violence. It was also noted that in all the polling units where there was violence, there was no security personnel on duty at the time the commotion happened.

A resident of Opaleye said: “They threw bottles at the voting point. They threw already thumbprint ballot papers inside the gutter but were picked and rearranged after the thugs left. We know the guy, he did it four years ago, promised to do it this time and he did. He is a politician who moves around with thugs. Unfortunately, the soldiers came shortly after the thugs left.”

Speaking to The Guardian, one of the soldiers deployed to Muyiwa Opaleye Street, said that on their way to the polling unit, five thugs were arrested along the axis while disrupting the voting process. “We arrested and handed them to the Police,” he said.

But in other polling units visited in Surulere Local Council, voting went on smoothly, though some of the election officers arrived late. Also, a resident of Olatilewa Street, Adesanya Adediran Adeyemi, who was ringing a bell and calling on residents to come out to vote, was sighted marching from one street to another.

However, across many streets in the council, children and young residents were seen playing football.
It was also observed that there was a low voter turnout. For instance, at Polling Unit 033, in Sanya, 45 persons had voted of the 305 registered as of 11:23 am. Similarly, of the 172 registered voters, only 67 persons got accredited and voted at Polling Unit 078, Karounwi, Itire at 1:52 pm. At Polling Unit 36 in Itire too, 818 were expected to vote, but only 133 voted as of 1:53 pm.

A resident, Egunjobi Kazeem, said that he got injured because he fell while escaping when some thugs invaded Karounwin Street. He disclosed that the thugs would have smashed the ballot boxes in his unit but the INEC ad-hoc staff ran away with them into the nearby building. He said that in the polling unit opposite his, some ballot papers were removed from one of the boxes.

Kazeem disclosed that many of the residents in the queue to vote did not return after the political thugs harassed them.