TELL Magazine

Enthusiastic voters on Saturday got to the Agungi Ajiran Road polling centres, in the Lekki area of Eti-Osa local government area of Lagos State with the intention of exercising their franchise in the ongoing governorship and House of Assembly polls only to find a sacrifice placed on a spot near the polling area. Interestingly, the sacrifice was placed not too far from the Agungi Central Mosque.
The voters however said they were unmoved by the fetish discovery which they perceived as another ploy at scaring them away from voting. As of 1.35 pm, voting was yet to commence as INEC officials did not show up. Reports monitored on Arise TV say there were about 1,000 voters at the centre anxious to cast their votes.
Dorcas Ajimele, who said she got to the polling unit at a few minutes after 8 am, said she collected her number – 147 – “but up until now, no INEC official. We were told that they missed their way and went somewhere else and that was some few minutes past 9, and up till now, they are yet to show up. We are still here and hoping that they will show up so that we can cast our votes because that is what we desire to do”. She however said if INEC did not show up, there was nothing that they could do. She insisted that “INEC must ensure they bring their officials so that we can cast our vote”.
Another aggrieved voter, Kehinde Salami, said he felt disenfranchised. “We’ve been here since 8 o’clock, it’s now going to two o’clock, and there is no INEC official; there’s absolutely nothing happening here. You can see the crowd; people are quite agitated, they are angry and waiting to cast their vote. We came here this morning, and we saw this. I don’t know what to call it; we saw this sacrifice here. We are not disturbed in any way at all. No, no, no, this is Nigeria. All these one don’t work for people like us”.
Asked why he thought the sacrifice was put there, Salami said “I don’t know why it was put here. This is highly unusual. Again, it’s another way of voter suppression and I don’t think it’s going to stand”.
Curiously, while voting took place in a nearby polling unit with about 50 voters, this particular polling centre with about 1,000 potential voters were left stranded.