Violence almost broke out at Ijesha local government during Saturday’s Osun State Governorship election but for the timely intervention of security operatives who moved in to restore law and order.
There was heavy military and police presence on ground indicating that a red security alert had been placed in the area especially at Imo and Igbogi-Ikoti, where armoured tanks were posited at strategic points.
The aftermath of the pre-election violence that led to the killings of two persons was visible everywhere, with posters and billboards destroyed and torn to pieces.
This did not discourage the impressive turn out of voters to cast their ballots in the governorship election.
Three police men and one civil defence officer were seen attached to several polling units visited in Kajola, Apara, and Iregun, but officials of the Economic And Financial Commission, EFCC were conspicuously absent.
The exercise which kicked off between 7:30am and 8:02am in several polling units visited in Ilesa-Ijesha area was conducted smoothly except for the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS which failed to recognise some of the elderly voters who insisted on waiting until the device recognised them.
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The persistence paid off as a 104-year-old man was finally captured by the BVAS and he was able to exercise his franchise.
But at the polling unit of Senator Francis Fadahunsi, which is polling unit 01, NUD School, in Ilasa-Ijesha, there were allegations that he was intimidating voters. Fadahunsi was the APC senator earlier accused of hate speech and threats to kill Accord Party members on election day.
Ilesa-Ijesa LGA has over 172,000 voting strength out of over 2 million registered voters in Osun State.
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(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
