Lagos stakeholders commend INEC for a well coordinated election
Patrick Okohue
Some Nigerian political stakeholders have commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its performance at the Presidential and national Assembly election, describing it as above board and well coordinated. Speaking on the election, the National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Babatunde Ogala described the election as satisfactory, according to him, “I have tried to go around the constituency to the extent to which I could move, I will say that so far it appears to be moving so well. “Like if you move around now you can see the people, the enthusiasm, they are relaxed, there are even no policemen here and the people are policing the votes themselves and you can see everybody are seated waiting, organising the queue and the process themselves, this is a case of citizens taking ownership of the process. “If what I have seen in this constituency is anything to go by, then we can say that there is a lot of interest, a lot of enthusiasm, if you listen to the discussions even you hear people throwing challenge and all that, so I will say so far so good.” Talking about the relaxed security situation in most parts of the state, Ogala said, “I think what I can attribute this to is the President, Commander In Chief’s statement, which some chose to misconstrue, which was a stern warning, ‘go and disrupt the process at the risk of your life’, it was as a statement to all. “The Military are deployed, but they are not at polling stations, they are not at polling units, they are not even being seen, but they are deployed and they can move at little or no notice, that is the beauty of this as against being laidback, they are on standby, they are on alert,” he said. Also speaking, Mr. Emmanuel Umohinyang, Convener of the Re-Elect Buhari Movement described the election as generally peaceful. He said, “From what we have seen in this polling unit, it is relatively peaceful and we will also use this opportunity to commend Mr. President for keeping to his word that under his watch elections will not be rigged, it will be peaceful, it will be fair and it will be credible. “What we have also received in our situation room also suggest that even from other parts of the country, it’s been very peaceful, so I believe that the pain we had about the aborted election of the 16th February, that people will console themselves with this peaceful atmosphere that we have experienced and Nigerians have taken over this process and make it theirs. “This is because a time of election is a time of celebration of democracy, that is what we are seeing there, people have come out peacefully to cast their votes for candidates of their choice and we must also praise the people for being orderly. “We will also like to appreciate the effort of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu Lafia for doing a good job, his men are well behaved and Nigerians are happy about it and it is the same thing from information that we have gotten from other areas.” Speaking about the relaxed security on the streets, he said, “a person of clear conscience fears no accusation, you see the pronouncement of Mr. President that whosoever snatches ballot box should be dealt with ruthlessly was just a case of a conditional statement and those who have been complaining over that statement suggest to Nigerians that they have intention of stealing ballot boxes as usual. “So, the relaxed atmosphere is just to tell you that the government is on top of the situation and the Inspector General of Police whose office is shouldered with the responsibility of managing electoral process has done a very good job. Also commending the process, a former governorship aspirant in Lagos State and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Deji Doherty said he was happy with the way things were turning out in the state. Doherty said though he has always been suspicious of INEC and its antics in Lagos State, but that from the look of things from the election his confidence was gradually being rekindled. He noted that with the turn of events he was confident that his party will be at par with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, noting that though he was initially not looking beyond the party scoring about 30 percent of the vote cast in the state, but now he can confidently look towards 50/50 in the result, as he has seen that Lagosians are tired of the ruling party and looking towards the PDP for a change in the fortunes and a better life for them.
