Heads of security for the Edo State governorship election announced on Saturday that they have set out to investigate various areas and polling units where cases of gunshots were reported earlier during accreditation and voting.
Mr Adeleye Oyebade, Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), who heads the Edo election Security Monitoring Team, said that they were moving to areas where they had earlier received complaints of gunshots.
Oyebade added that their visit was to also ensure that election activities were going on according to electoral laws.
Though the electoral process has been peaceful, there were cases of gunshots in the morning of Saturday at Oza community, near Abudu in Orhiomwon Local Government Area, and Ologbo, a border town between Edo and Delta.
A member of one of the political parties at Ologbo in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area was said to have been allegedly shot by a suspected thug.
But the Enogie (traditional Head) of Ologbo Jason Akenzua, who confirmed hearing gunshots, said that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for the area told him that the gunshots were from security operatives to disperse the unruly crowd in the area.
Meanwhile, the Card Readers provided for the election to authenticate fingerprints of voters in Esan West and Esan Central Local Government Areas failed to recognise some voters.
While the Card Readers easily identified the voter cards, they failed to authenticate their fingerprints.
This abnormally was noticeable at the polling units in Ward 5 (Uhunmudumu Primary School), and units 14, 15 and 16 (Emado Primary School) in Ekpoma, Esan West Local Government Area.
The same was applicable in units 5 and 6, Ward 6 (Idumebo Primary School), in Esan Central Local Government Area.
However, the voters were still allowed to vote after the cases were incidented on INEC form after which the voters were made to thumb print in the form.
Meanwhile, Mr Victor Edoro, a politician in the area and an ex-commissioner in Edo, Mr Gideon Obhakhan, have described the exercise as impressive.
They described the voting process as peaceful and orderly, with compliance to COVID-19 Pandemic containment protocols.
Edoro, who voted at his voting centre in Idumebo Primary School, Irrua, Esan Central Local Government Area, described the voting process as “peaceful and hitch free.”
Governor Godwin Obaseki said he expected better preparations from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the governorship poll, after queueing for over an hour before voting.
Obaseki, who is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the election, stated this, shortly after he cast his vote at 11:48a.m, having joinied the queue for hand washing at 10:24a.m.
According to him, to wait for one and half hours on the queue before exercising his franchise is a bit disappointing.
“Given that this is a sole day election, I expected a bit more planning and preparation, and resources should have been put into this election.
“During the last presidential election in my polling unit, there were two polling points which helped the body on voters. You all are witnesses of how long this has taken.
“The card reader is working very slowly, and this is the situation in all the major voting centres in Oredo Local Government Area of the state as I speak.
“In Garrick Memorial Secondary School, I understand that over 500 voters are already stranded because they can’t vote because of the slow processing of the card readers.
“One would have expected that INEC will have deployed more card readers and more voting points in highly numbered polling centers,” he said.
On the issue of vote buying at polling units, the governor said that the security agencies were not doing what they assured Edo people and Nigerians of, before the election.
“The security agencies assured us that they won’t allow anybody who don’t have business of voting in a particular place to be there, but they are working on the contrary to what they promised us.
“You can see cars parked with a lot of cash being disbursed to people and it seems to be normal practice, but we are not perturbed. People know what to do; cash can’t buy their future,” he added.
Mr Church Haris, a voter at the Governor’s Polling Unit in Oredo Ward 4 commended the governor for following the election procedure.
“I was amazed that he took a position on the queue.
“He surprised many voters in this ward. We are proud of him,’’ he said.
Rita Osahon, who also voted at the polling unit, similarly commended the governor for staying on the queue to cast his vote.
Meanwhile, Sylvester Okoduwa, an official of the Transition Monitoring Group, an election NGO, commended the peaceful commencement of the electoral process in the Edo state capital.
He said the election had started on a peaceful note and the voters wore their face masks, observed the social distancing rule, and also washed their hands in compliance to the COVID-19 protocols.
The European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) said voters in Ologbosere Primary School, Ward 4 with 40 units and other polling units they visited were not observing the COVID-19 guidelines as stipulated in the INEC policy.
Mr Wilson Manji, the deputy project coordinator, said that although the voters were all wearing face masks, they did not maintain social distancing.
“So far, the election is going smoothly and calm. We are at Ologbosere primary in Ikpoba-Okha local government area of the state.
“So far everything is peaceful and calm here. Just that the INEC staff just arrived at about 10a.m. and accreditation and voting started at about 10.30a.m. instead of 8.30a.m,” he said.
According to him, the polling officers came with hand sanitisers and thermometers to check the temperature of every voter.
On his part, the Head, INEC Voter Education and Publicity, Timidi Wariowei, told newsmen at INEC office in Benin that most of the polling units and voting points started voting at 8.30a.m.
“But we are aware that there are some few isolated cases that started 9.a.m. or after 9.a.m. because of some issues they needed to sort out.
“From the reports we are getting, almost all the polling units have started voting,” he said.
Wariowei, however, said he observed that the voters were all wearing face masks but did not maintain social distancing.
According to Wariowei, before I left the polling units I visited, I educated the people on the need to adhere strictly to the COVID-19 regulations by maintaining social distancing for the safety of all.
