The Saturday, February 25th presidential and National Assembly elections have been marred by pockets of violence in some parts of Lagos State.
Apart from the fact that the election is peaceful in some areas, in other areas voting was disrupted when armed thugs arrived at polling units and shot sporadically into the air to disrupt the election, and disperse voters.
Voters were injured while others scampered for safety, and generally voting started two or three hours behind schedule in some areas and for some others voting did not start until 12 pm.
It was a bitter experience fur voters in Surulere area of Lagos State where residents had come out in their numbers to vote for their choice candidates, unfortunately political thugs took over the stage as they shot sporadically in polling units, warning voters to stay away from the polling units if they were not going to vote for their party.
The House of Representatives candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Surulere constituency 1, Alani Jeje, popularly called Bobby Jeje who spoke with Daily Independent lamented that voters were suppressed, injured and ballot boxes snatched by the thugs in Surulere, and in Lawson area in particular the thugs snatched and destroyed all the ballot boxes, moved from one polling unit to the other snatching and destroying ballot boxes in the process.
“The thugs have taken over everywhere. They have beaten up people in areas where PDP is very strong. They are doing this right under the watch of the police. I have put a call across to the police for help and for over two hours, no help has reached us. They have destroyed the ballot boxes in Lawson and they are going to other polling units to snatch and destroy ballot boxes.
“They have asked voters to stay away from the polling units if they are not going to vote for their party. They have injured a lot of people in the process. I don’t know why there is no presence of the Nigerian Army in Surulere,” Jeje said.
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The voters who were very determined to vote regrouped after the thugs had left the scene but unfortunately the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials did not return to attend to them.
The story is not different in Eti-Osa local government area where political thugs disrupted voting, destroyed voting materials in the polling units and attacked voters.
The story is the same in Isolo, Oshodi and Ajeromi/Ifelodun areas of the state.
