Massive Turnout Forces INEC to Extend Voting Beyond Deadline

Sunday Ehigiator
Voting was yesterday extended in some parts of Lagos beyond official 2:30pm closing time stipulated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) due to the massive turnout of registered voters in many of the polling units, including the newly established polling units.

THISDAY findings revealed that at many of the polling units around Ikorodu, Owode Onirin, Ajegunle, Irawo, Mile 12, Kosofe, Ketu, and Alapere area of the state, voting was still on as of 6:00 p.m yesterday.
In many of the affected polling units, THISDAY observed that the situation was attributed to the massive number of voters turnout, the slow processing time of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the late arrival of INEC officials, understaffed INEC officials and lack of effective coordination by INEC officials respectively.

In ward 10, polling unit 50 at Owode Onirin, for instance, findings revealed that the situation almost degenerated into violence after the Presiding Officer of the unit, tried to end voting around 5:00 p.m with claims that voting was past official time.
However, according to our findings, this decision was faced with stiff resistance by over 100 youth who were yet to exercise their franchise despite being in the queue since 6:30am.

Before the incident, the youth had earlier claimed that there was a scheme by the INEC officials to disenfranchise them as they were only allowing the elderly voters whom they alleged were mostly voting for the All Progressive Party (APC), to vote, without allowing any youth.

Speaking with THISDAY yesterday, one of the voters, Saheed Olamilekan, since past 9:00 am that they started the voting process, they were only allowing the elderly who were voting the opposition APC to cast their vote.

“We the youth barely started voting before the 2:30pm deadline, and we have over 700 voters in this polling unit. The next thing, the polling officer said she was stopping voting when there were still over 100 people in the queue waiting to vote. Where is that done?”

It took the intervention of the ward’s supervising officer, who was called on the phone by the security personnel in the polling unit to restore law and order after instructing that the voting process must continue until the last man in queue votes.

Elsewhere, there was no incident of violence recorded in polling units around the Ikorodu area of the state at the time this story was filled.