The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Idiat Adebule, on Saturday averted what could have led to the mobbing of a young female National Youth Service Corps member and other Independent National Electoral Commission officials due to the delay in the election process.
Adebule, who had cast her vote at the Ward 8, Polling Unit 029 at about 11:25 a.m. embarked on election monitoring around Ward 8 with her team.
At a polling unit located close to her estate, the deputy governor noticed an irate crowd and made moves to appease them.
After quizzing some INEC officials as well some of the electorates to determine what the reason for the agitation was, she learnt that the people were angry because they had been at the centre as early as 8:00 p.m. but the election materials did not arrive till about 11:45 am.
A man who later identified himself simply as Simeon said, “We have every reason to be angry. I got here as early as 8:00 a.m. but there was no one here. The officials later came at about 11:45 a.m, and did not start on time; instead, they were very unorganised. To make matters worse, the sun is scorching.”
An obviously angry elderly man said, “I will be 60 years old this year and one small girl has kept me in the sun for over four hours. This is very annoying.”
While speaking to these men, our correspondent overheard two other men who stated that but for the presence of the deputy governor, they would have beaten up the INEC officials.
One said, “God saved that young girl and these INEC people. If not that Mama (Adebule) came here, dem for don beat all these people.”
While addressing the irate crowd with a public address system, Adebule urged the INEC officials to hasten the process up in other not to further aggravate the anger of the crowd.
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