By Morenike Taire

When Adebola Odubitan was posted to Ekiti State for her mandatory national service, little did she know she would undertake such a sensitive and potentially dangerous national assignment as that of an electoral officer.

In this eye witness account of the June Ekiti gubernatorial elections, a National Youth Corp member who participated in coordinating the elections confirms the polls were free and fair; and calls for Corpers to be engaged in the upcoming general elections.

Adebola Odubitan with a colleague 

How did you feel being involved in the elections?

At first I was scared because I’ve heard so many things about elections but then during the training we were assured that security was going to be provided.

Was it provided?

The security was adequate. Policemen were around my polling unit and anytime I saw them, I was confident. At a point some voters on the queue were already saying  a maa fo’go o (we are going to break bottle). I just carried the whole ballot bag and as I stepped out I saw a police van.

They were not even normal police, they were SSS people. Immediately they saw me, they came with the van and said, “What’s the problem?” When the party agents saw that SSS guys were around, they just shut up. He told them I had the authority to cancel the polling unit. They made everything smooth.

Was it the party agents that were rowdy?

It was the people on the queue. Protocol said we had to first deal with the old people, the disabled and pregnant women before everyone else. They wanted to vote right on time but we told them that that was what we’ve been trained to do.

Who was responsible for your training and what did you feel about it?             

INEC. To me it was a piece of cake. The whole issue of training us every week was just a waste of time; it was something we could have learnt within a week.

Was there a case of election malpractice on the side of the winning party in your own ward and in the ward of your friends or people you heard about?

No. In a friend’s ward she said it was the incumbent party that was trying to bribe. Even in my ward the party agents were like, “aunty se ee ni m’omi ni” (will you not drink water?) or, e je ‘a ri’ra (let us see in camera). PDP won that election.

Will you prescribe for corpers to be in charge of elections?

Yes and they should be paid more.

Is it not your National Service?

I didn’t eat throughout. If you pay your corpers well, they will do a good job. I would encourage the involvement of corpers because they are neutral.