…APC takes Rhodes-Vivor’s polling unit
By Chukwudi Nweje
The rescheduled governorship and states House of Assembly elections held yesterday amid relative voter apathy compared with the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25.
Unlike the presidential and National Assembly polls on February 25 where voters turned out and waited for officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to arrive, INEC set up for the governorship and House of Assembly elections and waited for voters to come out.
Also, opposed to the February 25 polls where anxious eligible voters queued at the various polling units for accreditation and voting, the governorship and state assembly election fid not have a queue of anxious voters.
At 8:35 am when Sunday Sun visited Anifowose area of Ikeja, INEC officials were ready at many of the polling units in the area but the voters were neither anxious to be accredited nor to vote.
At polling unit 001, which is also the collation center at Anifowose, Ikeja only two voters were in sight, while one was casting his ballot, the other was being accredited, as party agents and security officials manned their respective posts.
A resident of Anifowose, who is also an agent of one of the political parties spoke on condition of anonymity and blamed the seeming apathy and reluctance of voters to come out on the fallout of the February 25 Presidential Election.
“Look at the turnout for this election and the entire process everything is boring, people are reluctant and unwilling to come out. I am a resident as well as a party canvasser and agent, I have been going around trying to convince people to come out and vote but they are reluctant. I think the apathy has to fo with what happened after the presidential election on February 25,” she said.
At the end of voting a total of 50 voters were accredited and cast their votes at polling unit of the Labour Party (LP), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivor (Unit 045) compared to the 55 people that cast their votes during the presidential and National Assembly elections.
After counting the House of Assembly ballots, All Progressives Congress (APC) had a total of 34 votes, Labour Party 15 votes and PDP 1 vote.
In the governorship ballot, APC had 29 votes, LP 18 votes and PDP 2 votes. One ballot was voided due to double thumb printing.
Earlier in the morning Rhodes-Vivor had expressed confidence that he would win the governorship election after he cast his vote, and noted that the era of despotism in Lagos State would end with the election.
He noted that his confidence ie in the people and not INEC.
He said, “Lagos State has been under the rule of people that only bring about thuggery when they had the opportunity to work for the people. But, by the grace of God by the end of today their reign of thuggery, violence and chock-hold on the people of Lagos will be brought to an end.”
He decried the late arrival of election materials in parts of Lagos.
“Here in Anifowose voting has always been peaceful, we are like a family and we know our selves but I cannot use this place as a benchmark to test anything.
“We have reports of voter harassment and intimidation as well as late arrival of election materials. At Iba voting materials are yet to arrive at now (9:43.) In Shomolu they chased away all the Labour Party agents, the Igbo and all the non indegiens s for what? Lagos is for sll of us.”
He also dismissed stories circulating on social media that he stepped down for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor), as fake news peddled by the candidate himself.
“It is fake news, I did not step down, I will say it is Jandor himself since the party had come out to disassociate itself from it.”
He reiterated that there is no Supreme Court case hanging over his head and noted that he emerged governorship candidate of LP following a substitution primary after the initial candidate withdrew.