Kunle Adelabu
It was sad experience for the supervisor for the Zone B, GRA Phase 2, Alogba Estate Community Development Association (CDA) election, Mr Ibrahm Abuanakra, who is the Head of Agricultural Department of Ikorodu West Local Council Development Area, as he escaped being lynched by thugs and some residents who disrupted the election of the CDA held on Saturday, January 25, 2020.
The election became inconclusive after the disruption of the recounting process of the ballot papers for the three chairmanship candidates in the election.
The electoral committee chairman, who spoke with reporters after the disruption of the recounting of the ballot papers for the Chairmanship election declared the election inconclusive.
A total of 297 residents, as displayed on the voters’ board, were cleared to vote in the election which the council official that supervised the process stated was allowed to hold on compassionate ground after the State Government’s directive on conduct of elections into the various CDAs, CDCS and Lagos State Community Development Advisory Council (LSCDAC) offices last December.
Zone A had 115 residents eligible voters, Zone B had 75, Zone C had 40, Zone D had 31 and Zone E had 36.
THE IMPACT witnessed massive presence of security personnel which included men of the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Police, Lagos State Neighbourhood Corps and Onyabo Vigilante Group, as there was premonition of disruption of the process.
Mr Abubakar, who was shielded by some officials of the Council’s Community Development Committee (CDC) who were present at the Alogba Estate venue of the election, was seen being molested by some thugs and residents who insisted that he must announced the result of the chairmanship election.
He was later whisked away by the men of the SARS who were also on ground.
Residents of the estate, including the popular Ikorodu-born Afro-Hip-hop artiste, Qudus Alagbe (Qdot), started arriving the venue of the election as early as 7am and by 9am, about 300 residents were already on ground to exercise their civic obligations to their community.
However, problem started when one of the contesting groups insisted on adding supplementary list of residents that have paid their development levy despite the expiration of the electoral committee’s deadline for the submission of voters’ lists and consequent release of the final list of eligible voters by the electoral committee led by Mr Olayomi Ogunleye. .
The insistence by the group to add the list was , however, rebuffed by, supporters of the other group on the ground that they too have list of residents in their area who paid their development levy after the deadline for submission of voters’ list but did not present it in adherence to the electoral rules.
The initially disruption, which lasted for several hours, was resolved when both groups, electoral committee and supervisors from the Council and CDC agreed to use the main list with the electoral committee.
After accreditation and commencement of voting at 11.18am, another problem came when the residents of Zone E were called to cast their votes and the two contesting camps started raising accusations and counter-accusations on why certain individuals in the zone must not be allowed to vote.
However, casting of votes ended around 3pm while counting of ballot papers followed.
While the electoral officers were able to successfully counted and announced the results for the positions of Auditor, Social Welfare Secretary, Assistant General Secretary, General Secretary, Vice Chairman, they were unable to announce the result for the Chairman before the process was disrupted.
According to report, the disruption was as a result of an argument which ensued after the initial counting of the ballot papers for the chairmanship election and it was agreed that there should be a recount.
THE IMPACT further gathered that the initial total number of ballot papers counted for the two leading chairmanship candidates were 96 and 97 respectively and after recounting the ballot papers for one of the candidates, his supporters started jubilating after getting hint that he has emerged winners but supporters of the other camp insisted that the ballot papers should be recounted and result announced publicly the way it was done for other positions.
It was at this point of argument that the members of the electoral committee came under attack.
The atmosphere became volatile as thugs, which many of the residents claimed were not member of their community, alongside some residents surged forward to mob the electoral team as well as council and CDC officials.
Attempt was also made to snatch the ballot boxes but they were hurriedly ferried away by electoral officials.
The hoodlums, thereafter, descended on the venue as they threw away the chars and damaged the tents.
And as a way of dousing the chaotic atmosphere, the security personnel administered their teargas which made the people at the venue to scamper for safety.
Residents, who later spoke with THE IMPACT, condemned the ugly incident.
In the results announced for the positions of Auditor and Social Welfare Secretary , the candidates who were unopposed scored 159 and 163 votes respectively, while in the two contested positions, Mr Animashaun Jimmy polled 119 votes to beat Mr Oluseyi Daniel who scored 75 votes fr the position of the CDA Secretary.
Mr Moshood Alade emerged the Vice-Chairman-elect with 99 votes to beat his opponent, Mr Gbenga Rowland who polled 79 votes.
While addressing reporters at the venue, the electoral chairman, Mr Olayomi Ogunleye, stated that the process was inconclusive and that he would be liaising with the local government authority to chart a way forward.
“Officially, the result has not been announced because there are issues and allegations. We were in a tight situation during the counting of ballot papers for the chairmanship position with one candidate having 96 votes but saying that he has 97 votes and insisted that we should recount and all that”, he stated.
“We tried to count the whole thing before all these problems started. Like I always tell people, there is no free and perfect election anywhere. It’s always free and fair.
“We were at the point of counting again to satisfy the yearnings of the people when, unfortunately, the problem started. We are in a dilemma and I cannot tell you what next until the situation is calm and people allow reasons to prevail.
“I will be getting in touch with the HOD Agric to come and address the community on the way forward because the constituted authorities for the CDA elections are the Agric Department and Local Government and Community Affairs Ministry”.
Mr Femi Owolabi Jim, a chairmanship contestant, speaking with our reporter, stated that the ballot papers should be recounted or a fresh election should be ordered.
“The problem started when a party wanted to force the electoral committee to add a supplementary list against the deadline given by the electoral body for submission. In actual fact, the date was extended till January 8 for every zone”, he recalled.
“To me, the supplementary list they even presented has been doctored. We heard that they issued receipts to lots of people who are not financially qualified to vote in Zone E .
”We insisted that we are not welcoming any new list and the main list was eventually agreed upon to be used.
“The election went well for other positions but where I got confused was when they were counting the votes for the Chairmanship election. After the first counting, they told us it a candidate polled 97 and the other scored 96 and on recounting we were told that it was 97. My own expectation was that they should recount for the two candidates and they just counted one and declared him the winner.
“I was expecting them to call everybody and explain the situation to us but we just discovered that police started teargassing everyone which made people flee the venue while the officials from the council went away with the ballots papers without declaring anybody winner.
“My expectation is for them to go back to the status quo to recount that ballot papers and declare the winner or a fresh election should be organized”, he stated while asked to suggest a way out.
Mr Abass Lareef, the Director-General for the Campaign Organisation of Alhaji Wasiu Asha, another chairmanship candidate, in his own reaction, also said that the chairmanship election is inconclusive and called for cancellation of its results and new election.
“There was lots of brouhaha in the morning when the other opponent was trying to bring in a supplementary list against the deadline given by the electoral committee. Our own candidate worked in tandem with the deadline.
“We equally have supplementary list which was rejected and we accepted our faith. Eventually, the matter was resolved and their additional list was turned down too before the election was allowed to proceed.
“The process went very well until the counting of the chairmanship election results. Initially, they counted 97 votes each for the two chairmanship candidates and they were asked to recount. On the second counting, they counted 97 for one of the candidates, Mr Ayodeji Dodumu and the vote of the other candidate were about to be recounted when the electoral officials were prevented from doing that”.
He alleged that the council and electoral officials refused to recount the votes of other candidates.
“The official from the Ikorodu West LCDA and the electoral officials refused to recount for other parties before police started teargassing people and they left the venue of the election with the ballot boxes” , he alleged.
“As far as we are concerned, the chairmanship election is inconclusive and should be declared so. They should cancel it and declared a date for a new election. With what they have done today, there are lots of foul play and manipulation”, he stated.
Qudus Fakoya (Qdot), resident of Alogba Estate, also speaking with THE IMPACT, said that the election was not free and fair.
“Well, there are three candidates for the chairmanship election and as you can see, people are not happy about the result and this means there is something fishy about the election which is not good”, he stated while expressing his dissatisfaction over the electoral process.
“People, including myself, were trying to make sure that their votes count by voting for their choice candidates which is very important.
“First, they said the result was 98 and 97 for the two Chairmanship candidates respectively and now, they are telling us that it is 97, which sound somehow. The election is not free and fair”.
