Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Jimi Agbaje has said that the low turnout of voters witnessed in today’s elections may not be unconnected with the violence that rocked some parts of Lagos in February 23 Presidential/ National Assembly elections.
Agbaje spoke with newsmen after voting at Polling Unit 002, Ward A, Apapa, appealing, however, to the voters in the state not to be deterred or discouraged from exercising their voting right.
BusinessDay generally observed low turnout of voters in most parts of the Lagos metropolis and late arrival of INEC staff with election materials, a development that led to delay in the commencement of voting in affected polling units.
“We have quite a number of units where elections have not taken off yet.
“We still have this confusion about card readers. We are having a situation where in some polling units, the card reader is not working, and people are saying they cannot vote.
For me, however, today, fortunately after several attempts the card reader identified my fingerprints, but what I am saying is that it has to be a uniform process.
If the card reader is not working, is manual going to be allowed, is it not going to be allowed? So we have that as an issue. We hope that as the day goes by we would have more people coming out to vote.”
On the low turnout, he said, “In the case of Lagos today it could be as a result of what happened during the last election in terms of intimidation, in terms of thuggery, ballot snatching, violence.
“But there are deeper issues and that is that if the people do not believe in the process, then they ask themselves why bother? It’s a chicken and egg situation. We just have to appeal to the people that they must come out to exercise their franchise.”
Agbaje expressed the confidence that he would emerge victorious in the election, saying, “The numbers are on our side.”
Joshua Bassey
