Overall, especially in the side of Lagos where this reporter covered, the conduct of the election could be described as peaceful and voter-turnout was quite impressive.
But security reports from other parts of Lagos begs the question as to where Baba Alkali, the Inspector General of Police, kept or sent his much-touted 400,000 security personnel for the election.
At Costain area of Lagos, hoodlums were captured on a viral video shooting gun at a polling unit where they did not want some people to cast their votes.
Same story came from Aguda, also in Surulere Lagos, where suspected thugs came in a mini-bus popularly called Korope, chased away INEC officials, destroyed all the votes already cast and carried away INEC’s voting materials.
In Ikate area of Surulere; some parts of Ijesha, Eti-Osa and some other places some political thugs terrorised voters and either attempted to disrupt election or hampered the exercise entirely.
In Kuje area of Abuja, our reporter covering the election there reported that some faceless individuals suspected to be political thugs came and started shooting guns which made everybody run for their lives.
None of these incidents was challenged because none of Alkali’s men was at the polling units.
Read also:Â Video: INEC officials helpless as thugs storm Aguda polling unit after voting
At Wards 001 and 002 in Ketu Ijanikin, there was no single police officer. It took an agreement among the presiding officer, the party agents and the voters for voting to commence in these two units after waiting for the police for over two hours.
Whenever and whenever the story of the downsides of the conduct of 2023 elections is to be told, the despicable role of security will never be overlooked or forgotten.
As a country, Nigeria needs to get its security architecture right and as much as possible, primordial sentiments or considerations should not be allowed to dictate who or where gets protection from security agencies.
