By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Ogun State residents on Saturday stepped to elect chairmen and councillors into the state’s 20 Local Government Councils and 236 wards across the three Senatorial Districts.
The major political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) fielded candidates for the elections with expression of confidence of having a good showing.
Some of polling units and wards in the Sagamu and Ikenne Local Governments respectively monitored by our reporter showed voters arrived early at their various centres and were waiting for election materials and officials of the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) for the exercise to commence. There was also low turnout of voters.
A member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) identified as Oyefeso D1 told newsmen that they were waiting for voting materials and OGSIEC officials to arrive for voting to commence at a polling unit located inside Wesley Primary School, Ward 10, Sagamu.
At the polling unit 3, ward 3 at Iregun few meters away from Governor Dapo Abiodun’s polling unit in Ikenne Local Government Area, voting began two and half hours behind schedule.
The election was planned to begin by 8:am and ends by 2:pm but as at 9:45am, voting had not commenced in some of the centres in Ikenne and Sagamu due to late arrival of election materials and electoral officials.
In the polling units in cities such as Abeokuta, the state capital; Ijebu Ode, Ijebu Igbo, Ago – Iwoye, Ogbere, Ota, Ibafo, Isheri and Ilaro, the voting began behind schedule due to late arrival of election materials.
•Lookman Jagun, LP Chair, Ogun State
But the Chairman of the opposition Labour Party (LP) in the state, Lookman Abiodun Jagun, has called for the cancellation of the elections, citing alleged disenfranchisement of voters, lack of election materials in many of the polling units across the state, non – conduction of elections in many places, election malpractices and violence against opposition candidates.
Jagun lamented that the Chairman of OGSIEC Babatunde Osibodu failed to use the opportunity of the local government election to distinguish himself, declaring that what took place in Ogun state Saturday fell short of the minimum standard required for the conduct of an election.
He said that there was no election whatsoever in the whole of Ogun state, alleging that the good people of Ogun state were deliberately disenfranchised and prevented from using their votes to express their dissatisfaction with the failure of governance in the state.
Addressing newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, Lookman Jagun said, “You will recall that during the Press Conference flagging off our campaign for the Local Government Election on Thursday 31st October, 2024, I drew the attention of the whole world to the sinister and undemocratic plans of the ruling APC government to rig the local government election in conjunction with the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission. I also called on the Chairman of OGSIEC to seize the opportunity of the election to write his name in gold, by conducting a free, fair and credible election.
“Sadly, the Chairman of OGSIEC Babatunde Osibodu has failed to use the opportunity of the local government election to distinguish himself. What took place in Ogun state today falls short of the minimum standard required for the conduct of an election. There was no election whatsoever in the whole of Ogun state. The good people of Ogun state were deliberately disenfranchised and prevented from using their votes to express their dissatisfaction with the failure of governance in the state.
“There was no election whatsoever in virtually all the Polling Units in Ogun state. OGSIEC officials were no where to be seen in over ninety percent of the Polling Units and there were no election materials at the Polling Units as at 1.30pm. In the few Polling Units where election materials were delivered, the materials were incomplete and were delivered around 1pm, as against 8am when the election was supposed to start.
“More worrisome is the fact that our teeming supporters, made up of youths, old men and women, came out in their numbers to exercise their democratic rights. They waited endlessly for the arrival of OGSIEC officials and the election materials, which never came. In the few places where the materials were delivered, our supporters were chased away from the Polling Units and those who stood their grounds were beaten and brutalised.
“You will recall that the state governor Prince Dapo Abiodun had earlier boasted that the opposition were invincible and that APC was going to sweep the polls. There plan is to rig the election in the most crude and barbaric manner, and they have just demonstrated it with today’s charade. Ogun state is the gateway state and we expect better from OGSIEC.
“We totally reject whatever results that are declared in this sham of an election. Even the good people of Ogun state have been expressing their opinions on radio and television that there was no election in Ogun state.
“We call on OGSIEC to cancel the entire election for being in clear violation of the electoral guidelines of Ogun state electoral law. If they fail to do this, we will reject any results that is announced and put the necessary machinery in motion to challenge this charade in Court.”
