Hundreds of voters at Aseese, Obafemi Owode Local Government, Ogun State, have expressed their frustrations over the delay in the arrival of the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
When our correspondent observed the activities at ward 2, polling unit 019, the residents were heard lamenting that the delay might be on purpose to frustrate people from voting.
Around 12 noon, the number of voters at the polling unit was about 276.
One of the aggrieved voters, Lawal Arinola, said a number of them have been waiting since 7:30 am to vote but no INEC official had reported to the area.
A middle-aged man, who gave his name simply as Akinmoladun, told our correspondent that he had been waiting for over four hours but no party agent or INEC official had arrived.
He said, “No polling unit in this area has seen any INEC official. From Maba to Cele 2, down to Powerline. Meanwhile, some polling units in Lagos are almost done voting. This is unfair. Will they come now and expect us to finish voting by 2:30? People are eager to vote, that’s why they came out en masse.”
The community development chairman, Oyelakin Lawrence, who was in charge of distributing numbers to voters as they arrived, told our correspondent that the delay was due to logistics issues.
He said, “Before now we had only 24 polling units in Ibafo, now we have 47. The same can be recorded in other areas in Obafemi Owode. It’s quite an issue disbursing the materials to each polling unit. The INEC officials are on their way. We have sent people to pick them.”
