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February
Some unknown gunmen have attacked and disrupted the presidential and National Assembly elections at some cluster units in Mafoluku, Oshodi area of Lagos State.
The gunmen, numbering more than six, came on motorcycles to the area and started shooting to scare away the voters.
The gunmen attacked Owoseni, Ijaye, Branco, Owolabi, Fadeyi streets amongst others that formed the cluster units, collected some of the ballot boxes containing papers already thumb printed and set them on fire.
“The unknown gunmen came in around 12 noon and started shooting. They collected some of the thumb printed ballot papers and set them on fire.
“The hoodlums ran away when armed police and soldiers arrived the place,” Mr Jonah Obisanya, an electorate said.
The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, CP Idowu Owohunwa, who visited the area about 1.07 p.m. evacuated 25 Ad-hoc INEC officials from the units attacked and took them to the police command headquarters.
The officials were later taken to Oshodi Local Government Council with electoral materials.
Owohunwa said that some suspects have been arrested in different parts of the state for electoral offences.
He, however, did not mention the number of arrests made, stressing that a comprehensive number of people arrested will be made known to the public.
The police boss said that so far, the exercise has been peaceful in most parts of the state in spite of pockets of violence in some areas.
He said that some of the violence observed in some areas were expected, stressing that special squads were put in place to immediately check them.
The police boss said no one died in the crisis so far, pointing out that security have been beefed up in the areas concerned.
Some of the ad-hoc staff that sustained injuries were treated by the police medical unit at the state Command.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) registered in 2011 and 2018 were, on Saturday morning, seen on a roadside in Okota, Lagos State.
It is yet to be known who dumped the bag of cards on Ago Palace Way, Okota, and why.
Some citizens in the area who claimed that they did not have PVCs, gathered at the scene to check if they could find theirs.
However, to maintain order, some policemen in a patrol van intervened, took the bag and drove off.
The policemen later came with some of the cards and gave them to a man in the crowd to read out names on them.
They left after a while and returned later with a new set of cards which they also gave the man to call out the names of their owners.
About 10 people in the crowd collected their cards there.
The policemen eventually left with the remaining cards.
A trader, Mr Nnaemeka Mbanugo, said that it was unfortunate that while some Nigerians willing to vote did not have PVC, a large number of the cards was dumped on a roadside.
He noted that the majority of the cards were for residents of Oshodi/Isolo council area of the state which Okota falls under.
“What happened this morning is unfortunate; we came out to see PVCs dumped on the road.
“These are not recent PVCs. I went to INEC office but unfortunately, I could not get my PVC.
“If INEC had wanted to do it this way, it should have got some people to go round, a week before now, to distribute the cards instead of what we are seeing,” he said.