By Gabriel Enogholease and Ozioruva Aliu

IT was a bag of mixed fortunes that trailed the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Edo state on Saturday as what started peacefully in the three senatorial districts of the state went awry especially in Edo South from mid-afternoon with reports of destruction of already thumb printed ballot papers, snatching of ballot boxes in some areas and burning of thumb printed papers in others.

Initial reports showed peaceful conduct of the exercise except for the late arrival of materials and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In Oredo Ward 4, Polling Unit 19 at Emokpae Primary School where Governor Godwin Obaseki voted, he called for a hastened process so as to accommodate the huge turnout of voters at the centre.

Speaking after exercising his franchise, Governor Obaseki expressed satisfaction with the level of turnout of voters.

The governor, while describing the process as peaceful, said the BVAS has made the process seamless.

Obaseki said the time is coming where people can now vote from their houses due to the advancement of modern technology.

He said “Although INEC started a bit late in this center, you can see the turnout is quite impressive. My concern is that the process should be hastened so that we can clear the crowd.

“From my own observation and the three or four votings I witnessed, it is almost flawless”.

Some metres away from the Emokpae Primary School, gun wielding men stormed unit 42 voting unit on Butcher Street, off Mission Road, and carted away the ballot boxes.

Narrating her ordeal while the suspected thugs stormed the Oredo Ward 4, unit 42, one of the victims, Dayo Osula, said that they were waiting to vote when the thugs struck.

“We were waiting for our turn when the boys came, shooting and they took the ballot box away.

“As they were shooting, everyone including the police ran away and many ran into my father’s house. Then some policemen came and arrested two of my brothers, Kelvin Adun and Idugbowa Osula”.

But reacting to the incident, Obaseki said “It is too early to snatch the ballot because voting has not really taken place yet, we need to reconfirm that story. It doesn’t make sense to snatch a ballot box that doesn’t have ballot papers in it. We will check that and verify but I am confident because we made adequate preparations to ensure that every polling unit has at least five security personnel.  If it is not the police, civil Defence or DSS.

   “It is too early to make any conclusion, two hours into voting. We are going to go round and see what is going on across the state and population centers”, he added

   In Ward 7, units 1-6 of Oredo Local Government Area for instance, materials and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials did not arrive until 10.20am.

   Edo state Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Oluwoye Iyamu SAN, who was on ground to vote at the centre, expressed displeasure over late arrival of election materials and officials of INEC.

  Speaking with journalists at Oredo Ward Iyamu said: “the materials and officials are just coming at about 9:30 when the election is supposed to start by 8:30”.

   “People have been here since waiting for them, but materials are just coming now and this is not good for the election”

   At Oredo Ward 1, unit 18-21, Garrick Memorial Secondary School Benin, precisely, INEC officials arrived on time and voting started early.

  Also at Estate Primary School, Egor 20/21 polling unit voting activities went smoothly as enthusiastic Nigerians; both young and old came out as early as 8:00am on Saturday for their verification and to cast their votes in high optimism.

   Speaking with some of the voters, they appreciated the decongestion of each polling unit as well as prompt arrival of materials.

   Mrs. Victoria Eribo, aged, 100, who voted at Ikpoba Okha Ward 7, unit 1-57, described the voting process peaceful

   Also speaking, the President of the World Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, who exercised his franchise in the ongoing Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, voted in his Local Government Area, Egor LGA, located in Benin City, the capital of his home State, Edo State. He described the process as very peaceful.

Edo Central

In Esan Central/Esan West/Igueben Federal Constituency in Edo State, the election for House of Representatives has been put on hold as a result of the omission of the Labour Party (LP) logo from the ballot paper.

  The situation has however led to tension as some angry voters openly denounce the move as an attempt to manipulate the election.

   There are also reports of non-arrival of electoral materials in ward 7 unit 5 and all the polling units at Emuhi in Esan West Local Government Area.

Attempts to reach the  Electoral Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Esan West Local Government Area proved abortive as he is said to be on the field monitoring the distribution of electoral materials.

   Reports from Ujiogba, precisely Egure Primary School, Ujiogba indicated that the Biomodal Voting Accreditation System (BVAS) machine stopped functioning after accrediting some voters.

Edo North

Reports from the six local government areas indicated a peaceful atmosphere but the former governor of Edo State and the APC senatorial candidate Comrade Adams Oshiomhole  expressed confidence in winning the Edo North Senatorial election but lamented the late arrival of electoral materials in the Etsako Federal Constituency.

   He said he had reported the matter to the Electoral Officer (EO) in charge of the locality alleging that the development was targeted at the Etsako federal constituency.

   “In Okpella community where the House of Representatives candidate of the party hailed from, electoral materials arrived at about 11 am.

   He added that when the materials finally arrived there was no ballot paper and result sheets while also in ward 9 there was no result sheet, ink and stamp.

He maintained that the electorate vowed not to vote if all the materials were not made available.However, the operatives of the Nigeria Police have  arrested a middle aged man and  alleged Labour Party Agent over facilitating vote buying.

The incident occured at the voting center of Comrade Adams  Oshiomhole , APC Senatorial Candidate in Edo North.

Upon a search by security agents, the alleged voting buying agent was in possession of a long list, names and Bank accounts numbers of some of the voters in the centre.

A female voter whose name could not be ascertained was said to have raised the alarm and the said LP agent was promptly arrested.

It was learnt that after luring the people to vote for his candidates, the agent would then transferred money to their account with the help of Point of Sale (POS) machine.

He has since be moved to the  police facility in Iyamho.