At around 9 am, voters at Unit 054, Orise, Ikeja, Lagos, had already been at their polling units for about two hours without sighting any officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Kenneth Okafor and Samuel Ndububa, two voters waiting for voting to commence, told FIJ that they trekked from Ogun State to Lagos State and had been waiting at the polling unit for almost two hours for INEC officials to arrive.
Okafor told this reporter that he had been at the polling unit for two hours. “I came all the way from Akute in Ogun State. This was where I registered, so I had to come from there. I did not see a bike, no vehicle; I had to trek all the way from Akute, just because I felt strong,” he said.
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This reporter found that voters at the polling unit had number tags with them. According to Okafor, voters were sharing number tags among themselves as they waited for INEC officials.
“We are just giving ourselves numbers now. We didn’t see INEC; we didn’t see anyone. We are just wondering if it is going to be held today because it is not what we are expecting,” he said.
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Ndububa, another voter, told FIJ that agents that he knew said they were going to bring canopies.
“They are supposed to have pasted the names by now, but they said they wanted to bring the canopy first. Apparently, the INEC officials are still not here. We are just trying to organise ourselves.”
Like Okafor, Ndububa came to Lagos State from Ogun State to cast his vote.
He said, “I don’t stay around. I’m came from Abule, Ogun State. I trekked all the way to this place to be able to vote. So, what we are trying to do is to organise ourselves before INEC will come.”
FIJ observed the presence of one police officer and one official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) at the polling unit.
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