25th February, 2023
Adejoke Adeleye,Abeokuta
Ogun residents trooped out in large numbers to vote for the candidate of their choice in today’s National Assembly and presidential elections.
PM NEWS monitoring the exercise observed delay in arrival of electoral officials at some polling units, including that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, the state capital.
Our reporter observed that voting commenced at polling unit 16, Ward 11 and polling unit 15, Ward 11 – both in African Church Grammar School Ita Eko -Abeokuta, around 8.40.am 8.48a.m and Ijeja-Idishin at8:57am respectively.
The turn out of voters was quite low compared to what obtained in the polling units and wards in previous elections.
Accreditation of voters through the BVAS took an average of 3 minutes to succeed per person. At the polling unit 16, the first person to be accredited via the Personal Voter Card(PVC) identification process failed repeatedly but when the Bimodal Voter’s Accreditation System(BVAS) was used for him, the process succeeded.
At former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s polling unit 2, Ward 11 located at Olushomi compound, Totoro – Sokori area of Abeokuta, anxious voters were seen waiting patiently for the INEC officials and electoral materials to arrive the venue but as of 9.05a.m, they were not yet around.
It was learnt that a wrong BVAS machine was deployed to the Obasanjo’s polling unit and when the error was discovered, it had to returned to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office Magbon, Abeokuta for remedy.
At unit 35, Kemta Estate, Abeokuta, registered voters started gathering in their numbers in readiness to cast their votes.
The electoral officers arrived the unit around 7.03am with all the necessary materials ready, according to one of them who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity.
Security operatives – Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), were also around to provide security to the venue.
However, as of 8.03am two commercial buses carrying electoral materials and personnel pulled up briefly at Sapon, the epic centre of the recent Cash Crunch protest that rocked Ogun State early February, before taking off again to their destinations.