By ALBERT AKPOR, IFEANYI OKOLIE & VICTOR AKPA-FRESH

AFTER the botched April 2, 2011 National Assembly elections across the country, Nigerians, particularly residents of

Large turnout of voters in Surulere, Lagos last Saturday, Suleiman Abba,Lagos CP

Lagos, trooped out in large numbers in the early hours of April 9, as re-scheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to exercise their civic rights and elect candidates of their choice. Though the excitement and the zeal that greeted the postponed April 2, elections was visibly absent as exemplified in peoples’ attitude, an impressive number still came out to vote candidates of their choice. However, there was visibly a large turn out of voters during the Presidential elections even as it’s conduct was much more peaceful compared to that of the National Assembly.

Giving an insight into the relative peace in the general conduct of the elections in the state, Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Suleiman Abba said the police had ample time to plan and make adjustment on its security strategies. The police, he said, put in place certain security device to monitor movements in and around every polling booths, collation centres and up to the INEC headquarters. According to him, “You may not know but I will tell you that, for months, we have been planning on strategies to ensure that we conduct a peaceful elections generally; and so far, this is the second time we are having the conduct even though the first one was aborted. But the postponement of that first one gave us the opportunity to see how we would have gone wrong, how our plans are being executed and that again, gave us the opportunity to make adjustments during the National Assembly elections.

And in the just concluded Presidential elections, it was not surprising to me that it also went peacefully; I must tell you. Why because the good people of Lagos state indicated in the previous one that they have opted to go for a peaceful conduct during the Presidential elections which they exhibited in a very gentle manner with even much improvement than what we saw during the National Assembly elections. In the whole of the places I visited in Lagos, it was confirmed to me that the turn out was much better than what it was with that of the assembly.”

Continuing, CP Abba said, “Generally, the success of an election most times depends on the outcome; but the conduct determines whether the outcome will be acceptable or not. You can see that everybody is praising INEC for coming out on time, accreditation started tight on time in nearly all the polling units and stopped exactly 12noon.

Elections proper commenced immediately till 4.00 pm when the counting commenced all over. During the elections, we monitored every movement of individual in and around every polling booths, collation centres to INEC headquarters in the state; you may not know that. I personally, with some of my men including Journalists, physically monitored the conduct right from this office to Maryland, Ketu, Ikorodu from where we drove straight to Surulere, Mushin, Ijora, Apapa and then to Lagos Island. We went round virtually every nook and cranny of the state. Knowing what Mushin is noted for, we visited quite a number of black spots to register our presence; this is in addition to the presence of our men, both in uniforms and mufti, there.”

Crime Alert went round the nook and crannies of the state and scooped that, though the general conduct of the elections was peaceful, spontaneous violence, snatching of ballot boxes and harassment of INEC officials were recorded in some areas in Lagos state during the National Assembly elections.

Investigations conducted round the state showed that, though accreditation and voting was peaceful in some polling zones, areas like Mushin, Oshodi, Agege, in Lagos mainland, Martins street, Ebute_Ero, Idungaran, Tapa and Freeman Streets witnessed some skirmishes arising from ballot box- snatching, intimidation of voters and INEC officials, attempt to force voters to vote against their conscience and general civil unrest. At Martins street, a voter whose names was simply given as Hakeem was allegedly beaten to a pulp for resisting the instruction of unnamed political thugs to cast his vote for a woman National Assembly candidate of Lagos Central Constituency. At Ebute-Ero and the entrance to the Palace of the Oba of Lagos, there was incident of snatched ballot boxes and harassment of electoral officers.

Broken bottles which reports say were used to scare opposing party agents allegedly by thugs loyal to an unnamed politician, littered the roads when Crime Alert arrived the area. An unspecified number of political thugs were reportedly arrested and moved to an undisclosed police station to avoid undue interference by their political godfathers. A voter identified as Olufemi who had queued to cast his vote was reportedly injured while thugs were snatching a ballot box At Tapa, Freeman and the adjourning Simpson Streets, voters were spotted peeping from strategic locations in fear; fueling speculations that there had been pockets of violence before a team of anti-riot policemen including the convoy of the new Commissioner of police, Mr. Sulieman Abba, arrived the area.

At the headquarters of the Lagos Island local government Area, which incidentally was a collation center, a major civil unrest was recorded; prompting the commissioner of police to summon the Area Commander, ACP Suraju Umar and contemplated shifting collating the votes to a primary school on Tapa street. But the Area ‘A’ Commander was said to have told CP Abba that his men arrived the scene early enough to forestall total breakdown of law and order adding that normalcy was since restored before the CP arrived.

It was revealed that along Agege Motor Road, two persons including a lady were arrested by some army personnel who mounted roadblocks under the Iyana_Ipaja bridge with some INEC materials, including ballots boxes. But the suspects were later identified as authentic officials of the INEC recruited for the purpose of the polls. Along the Bank Anthony way, a young well- dressed man lay by the side of the road in a pool of his own blood. The cause of his death could not be ascertained.

During the Presidential polls, over 30 persons were arrested for various election offences in the state. At the Agege Abattoir, 8 person were arrested for alleged falsification of nationality. Five of the suspects who could argue their cases were allowed to go while the remaining three were taken to custody for further investigation. Another set of political thugs were rounded up by a combined team of police and soldiers at Mushin after they were alleged to had invaded some polling booths, brandishing dangerous weapons including short guns. Their invasion caused pandemonium as eligible voters took to their heels for safety. The cause of the invasion was not clear but the police said the suspects will be thoroughly investigated. At Okota in Isolo, the police also arrested some persons who defied the no movement order while the exercise was going on.