REGISTRATION of voters, which had been scheduled to commence yesterday throughout the country, did not take-off as planned in some parts of Lagos, as threats of violence forced the suspension of the exercise to today.
Minutes after an assurance by the Electoral Officer (EO) in charge that the exercise would start as planned, sporadic gunshots rent the air. The shots later increased in frequency, forcing people to scamper for safety.
No sooner had the shots subsided than corps members started leaving the school in groups, prompting the EO to close the exercise until Sunday, when it is expected that calm would have returned.
Corps members who were supposed to supervise the process in places like Idi-Araba, Babalosa, Isolo, Ilasa-Maja, Onipan, Fadeyi, Mushin, Itire and so on, had arrived early at Megbon Primary School, Mushin, where they were to be given final briefing and handed registration materials and equipment.
In spite of the arrival of necessary equipment, the corps members were not addressed by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) until about two hours after the exercise ought to have commenced.
Speaking , a corps member told The Guardian that he was no longer interested in working as a registrant. “Look, we have not yet gone to the streets, and we are running for our dear lives. Who knows what will happen next?” he said.
However, Hakeem, a trader in Mushin, noted that residents were already used to such situations. “This is Mushin. One minute some people are hiding, the next minute, life is going on as usual. We are used to it. And as you can see, anyone just arriving here would not believe that gun shots were fired only 30 minutes ago.”
Elsewhere, along the Old Ojo road, at about 2pm, no single centre was registering people. In a chat, one of the ad-hoc staff noted with dismay that the whole process was not well organised.
Guardian.
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