SOME people of the South-West extraction have been chanting, ‘Awa la l’Eko’, meaning, ‘We are the owners of Lagos’, as the governorship and House of Assembly elections hold in the state on Saturday, March 18.
The ICIR reporter saw many indigenous people of the region, mostly men, moving across polling units with the mantra at the Computer Village, Ikeja, the state capital.
The act was more visible at the polling units 016, 017, 042, 018 and 015 visited by the reporter.
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The men, mostly looking menacingly, moved across polling units claiming people from other regions should not dominate their land.
However, the reporter did not see them with any weapons. They were not also seen beating anyone. But there are indications fights had ensured in some of the polling units before our reporter’s arrival.
The ICIR came to the Computer Village after the Labour Party candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, identified the area as one of the places where he alleged that his supporters and party members were intimidated.
The ICIR reports that INEC’s ad-hoc officers came late to some of the polling units visited, as intending voters had waited for an hour before some of the commission’s workers arrived.
At polling unit 045, Oshinfila Street, Anifowoshe community, Ikeja, Rhodes-Vivour voted at some minutes after 9am. The officials had arrived at about a quarter to 9am.
The ICIR did not witness any major issue with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
Meanwhile, voting began in all four polling units along the High Court, around Area F Police Command in Ikeja, a few minutes after 8am.
Voting also started at polling unit 067 at Ketu Alapere Primary School after 8am.
Unlike in Abuja and other states in the country, there are many polling units on Lagos streets, with some streets having more than four.
The major candidates vying for the state governorship seat are the incumbent Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), and AbdulAzeez Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), about seven million voters are in Lagos State. The state tops others in the number of permanent voter cards (PVCs) collected in the country.
Voting is taking place across 4,861 polling units in the state, the highest in the country.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ [email protected]