Sambo delivers polling unit, defeats APC

Vice President Namadi Sambo, after several defeats at his polling unit by opposition party, trounced the All Progressives Congress at his new polling unit in the Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections. In the 2011 general elections, Sambo was roundly defeated in his polling unit, ward and local government. However, in the Saturday’s polls, the Returning Officer, Olorufemi Raphael, while announcing the result at the Kabala Doki Ward 5, Police College polling unit 11, said PDP polled 105 votes, APC 20 votes, NCP 01, and while APA 01. The Vice President had earlier, on the eve of the Saturday’s election, relocated his polling unit from Link/Camp Road to swimming pool road by the Kaduna Police College fence. The result of the wards and the Kaduna North LGA were still being awaiting as of the time of filing this result. Elsewhere Some armed thugs have reportedly hijacked ballot boxes on Ayilara Street in the Mushin area of Lagos. INEC officials told presmen that the thugs, after snatching the ballot box, emptied them in the gutter. We learnt that the House of Reps and Senatorial ballot materials were affected, hence residents could not vote. An official said, ,”They came in a car. They also carried bottles and cutlasses. As soon as they hijacked the boxes, they poured them(papers) into the gutters and ran away in their car. “We tried to salvage those papers, but we could not conduct the elections. because we did not know if they took some of the papers away. “But we were able to conduct the presidential election since it was only the house of reps and senatorial ballot boxes that were hijacked.” The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Kayode Aderanti while commending the officials for their courage, promised to beef up security in the area. In Ogun state, The Presidential and National Assembly elections in Ogun State held, Saturday was peaceful with little skirmishes in various parts of the state. The All Progressives Congress seems to be in early leads in some polling units so far as at the time of filing this report . At ward 11, polling unit 2, Olusomi’s compound in Sokori, Abeokuta, where Obasanjo cast his vote, APC won with wide margin. Also, at Ajura ward 4 in Obafemi-Owode where Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun cast his vote, APC won with wide margin. Meanwhile, some candidates of Senate and House of Representatives in the state as well as some politicians and electorates were disenfranchised following their inability to obtain Permanent Voter Cards. Some of the candidates who were disenfranchised include, APC Senate candidate from Ogun Central, Lanre Tejuoso , APC House of Representatives candidate, Mikhail Kazeem and former Special Assistant to former President Obasanjo on women affairs, Chief Mrs.Titilayo Ajanaku. Others who could ot vote were all electorate in ward 11 unit 21 as officials of Independent National Electoral Commissions failed to show up. Also at ward 10 unit 1 and 2 in Abeokuta North out of 704 registered voters only 18 people had PVCs and were allowed to cast their vote. At Ward 15, Unit 13 Polling Centre, Omida, Abeokuta, Buhari polled 118 votes, while Peoples Democratic Party got 47. Again at Ward 1, Unit 8, Ilawo Abeokuta North Local Government, Buhari polled 129, as againt Jonathan’s 28. At Ward 1, Unit 4, Buhari scored 129, while Jonathan managed to get 14. Also, results coming in from National Assembly elections, showed that APC candidates have defeated most of the PDP candidates; for example at Ward 15, Unit 13, for House of Representatives, APC candidate scored 49, while PDP candidate scored 16 and Social Democratic Party (PDP) polled nine. For the Senate, APC scored 49, PDP 21 and SDP 7. At Obasanjo’s ward, APC polled 98 as against PDP’s 8 and SDP 12 for the House of Representatives seat. For Senate, APC got 93, PDP 8 and SDP 15. At Ward 1, Unit 8, Ilawo, Abeokuta North local government, for the House of Representatives, APC scored 125 as against PDP’s 27. For the Senate, APC polled 126, PDP 28, SDP 3 and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), got 1. At Ward 1, Unit 4, Abeokuta North, for the House of Representatives, APC scored 126, PDP 17, while SDP got 5. For the Senate, APC polled 116 as against PDP’s 21 and SDP 9. Reports from many part of the state, indicated that the APC was leading in almost all the centres. The race was however, neck to neck between APC and PDP in Ijebu area of the state. The election was peaceful, as there was not major incident recorded so far. The former president, who spoke shortly after he was accredited by electoral officers at African Grammar School polling unit, Ward 11 in Abeokuta North Local Government of Ogun state, said that the election ” is a constitutional issue and every four years whether for all elective officers in Nigeria, we must go through this ritual”. He added: “What I have gone through is very okay, they checked my card, my finger print and they said it was okay and that I should come back and vote.” Ashimu Argungun, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Southwest zone, also said: “The election is perfectly alright, the election is going on smoothly, not only here, as you know, I am DIG Ashimu Argungun in charge of the Southwest for the election, almost from Lagos down to here and other Southwest, things are going on perfectly as expected, everybody is conducting themselves in line with the dictates of the election exercise. “In terms of peace, everything is going on peacefully, I can rate the level of peaceful conduct at 9+ per cent, even above that, in terms of peace even everywhere I visited, no fight, no argument of whatsoever.” In Ogun state, security agencies, including Army, Police, Civil Defence, SSS and other paramilitary were seen at every strategic points and polling units manning INEC sensitive materials and supporting electoral officers at polling booths, although there were some good numbers of men of Nigerian Army barricading major roads and streets, especially entry and exit roads in major cities of the state. Large turnout was witnessed almost every where in Ogun state despite heavy rain in Ado-Odo/Ota and some part of Ijebu in Ogun east, but defied rainfall and went to cast their ballots in a very peaceful manner, just as the observers were even ‘jobless’ since there were no strong challenges to attend to. Although, some challenges were encountered in some polling units in Ado-Odo/Ota, Abeokuta, Ilaro, Owode, Ijebu-Igbo, Ijebu-Ode, Sagamu among others as a result of malfunction and slow pace of card readers, INEC was however beat the situation as alternatives were provided in form of incidence forms to ease the voting processes in the affected areas. But, findings in Ijebu-Igbo in Ijebu in Ijebu North local government area of the state was worrisome as voters were sighted collecting N2, 000 for each vote cast in virtually all the polling units visited were indicated that voters showed their ballot papers to party agents after casting their votes. The voters were immediately and subsequently directed to another group of about five people who gave them money for voting their candidates. Ijebu-Igbo is the hometown of the Senatorial Candidates of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Buruji Kashamu and Adegbenga Kaka of Social Democratic Party (SDP) A beneficiary, who was also a voter in the axis told news men after voting said he received N2, 000 for voting for PDP candidate. He explained that he was at the voting center purposely to vote for Kashamu and no other candidate adding that they were properly trained on how to get their money after showing evidence of voting.