Edo LGA Polls: Late Arrival Of Materials, Low Turnout Characterlize The Process

It was disappointment and lamentation galore for Edolites as low turnout of voters and late arrival of electoral materials characterised the last local government elections in the state.
When National Point correspondent monitored the elections in Egor Local Government Area, one of the municipal councils in Benin City, materials started arriving the units few minutes before 12:7pm.
Some political parties’ agents had defied the heavy downpour to arrive at their polling units even before 8am, ensuring parties would not be blamed for delay.
Some voters who were at the polling centres some minutes past 8am, expressed surprise that neither electoral materials nor electoral officers had arrived.
A security officer deployed to Unit 44 Ward 10 of Egor Local Government Area, who preferred anonymity, said materials were still being awaited as of 8:30am.
At the Units 1 to 7, Ward 7 in the same council, which are domiciled at Olua Primary School, Uselu, materials and officials of the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC) came in with electoral materials by 9:37am.
The situation was worse at Oredo Local Government Area, where materials were yet to arrive their various units visited by 10:15am.
Some voters who were already waiting at units 1 to 3, Ward 12 in front of Oba of Benin Market but got no attention in spite of the closeness to the Oredo Local Government Secretariat.
The situation was similar at Units 11 and 31 in ward 1 of same Oredo Local Government Area where materials were still being expected as at 10:30am.
Some of the voters who spoke with newsmen expressed shock over the development.
One of them, Charles Osagie said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who was usually blamed for late start of election, had never been seen this late and called for extension of voting time since the state electoral body could not start in time.
Lamenting how election materials in Ovia were carted away by PDP thugs, Comrade Sam Uroupa, state publicity secretary of the Labour Party, said election materials distributed to the various local government areas by EDSIEC were forcefully carted away at gun point in Okada Ovia North East Local Government Council.
He disclosed that the materials arrived Okada at about 11:00PM on Friday 1st September 2023.
He said, “An eyewitness account has it that PDP thugs numbering over 50 were stationed at the entrance of the Secretariat where the materials were taken to and they started shouting and shooting sporadically to scare away all LP members.
“We don’t want Labour Party here, its PDP we are working for,”’ he quoted the hoodlums .
According to him, the vehicles suspected to have conveyed them there and parked beside the hoodlums, were all from Edo State Government House.
“As we speak, both sensitive and non-sensitive materials are still in their custody. As a party we consider this as EDSIEC connivance with the PDP led government to hijack the process, if not why would they have to deliberately delay the distribution of materials till late in the night?” he queried.
“EDSIEC should not make any attempt to announce any result already written in Government House because we are reliably informed that they used delayed distribution of materials till night to enable the Government House plan of hijacking the process.
“In Ovia South West it is the same thing; PDP thugs came with sporadic shooting and carted away the voting materials going to Ofunama ward, Inikorogha ward, Udo, Siloko and several other wards.
“In Oredo ward7, the voters were chased away, same with Garrick, there were no materials brought to the place. As I speak, there is no election in the affected areas.
“The situation was no different in many other places. The entire exercise has been hijacked as there is no voting taking place in all the polling units across the state. Edo Labour Party rejects the outcome today’s election,” he added.
Meanwhile Governor Obaseki described the election as impressive. Addressing journalists after voting at Emokpae Primary School, Mission Road he said, “The turnout was very impressive in spite of the rain. There was quite considerable turnout and it showed the interest in the local government election. This means that the political parties did well by going round sensitizing and mobilizing the electorates and the people.
“The process has been smooth and peaceful as a lot of people are still hanging around to see the end of voting. I am very impressed by what has happened as the organisation by EDSIEC has gone fairly well. You have so many people still here at almost the closing of the poll, which shows that we have a fairly decent turnout”.
The governor said he had been monitoring the election from other points and everything seemed to be working fine.
“I have been getting updates from across the state and this seems to be the trend all over. I have not received any report of violence yet and pray everything goes smoothly.”
Commenting on the complains that materials did not arrive on time in some areas, Obaseki’s said, “I believe that voting time will be extended by ESIEC beyond the 2.30pm closing time to allow more people cast their vote.