Ogun by-election: Hoodlums hijack ballot boxes as Abiodun commends INEC

By Adejoke Adeleye Ogun

The Saturday’s by-election in Ikenne/Sagamu/Remo North Federal constituency by-election was marred by violence with reports of hoodlums carting away ballot boxes and beating voters in some polling units.

Governor Dapo Abiodun who was elected on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC and his closest challenger in the 2023 governorship election, Oladipupo Adebutu hail from the federal constituency.

The election was therefore seen as another avenue by the two political heavyweights to assert their leadership in the constituency.

Though the Governor voted, it was not clear if the former PDP gubernatorial candidate was able to exercise his franchise in the election .

But our correspondent reports that hoodlums stormed Adebutu’s polling unit 011 in Iperu ward 005 to cart away the ballot boxes.

The hoodlums numbering about six on two motorcycles stormed the Wesley Primary school where the unit was located at at about 12:44pm with their face covered in black hoodies armed with dane guns and successfully carted the ballot boxes away after scaring away the voters and electoral officers with sporadic shooting.

Election at the polling unit, though peaceful was characterized by vote buying by party agents and underage voting before it was eventually disrupted by the hoodlums shooting sporadically and carted away ballot boxes in the premises.

There were also reports of that voters were beaten by hoodlums in some polling units in Isara Remo and Iperu.

There were also unconfirmed report that Adebutu has been placed on house arrest.

However, speaking after casting his vote at Polling Unit 002, Ita Osanyin, Iperu Ward 3 in Ikenne Local Government Area of the state, Govenor Abiodun hailed Independent Electoral Commission for its preparedness to ensure the success of the election.

The Ogun State Governor told newsmen that he was impressed with the early arrival of electoral materials.

He said, “I have just exercised my franchise. I am quite impressed with the feedback I got this morning that electoral materials arrived early. There is also an impressive turnout.

“Everybody is going about voting peacefully. In some places, maybe because of the weather, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine took some time to capture. So far, everything is so good.

“I want to thank INEC for being on top of the game as usual. Obviously, year-in-year-out, the electoral body keeps improving in the quality of services. Basically, everything is going on well.”