Hoodlums have reportedly attacked the ongoing electoral process at polling unit 5, Ward 3 in the Ayegbami area in Iperu Remo, Ogun State, as they attempted to snatch ballot boxes.
Iperu Remo is the hometown of the State Governor, Dapo Abiodun and his major contender, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The hoodlums, suspected to be political thugs, reportedly stormed the polling unit on motorcycles while they shot into the air to scare the people, According to Tribune, however, they were met with string resistance from the voters as they chased and recovered the ballot boxes from the hoodlums.
The State Commissioner of Police, CP Frank Mba, who was at the scene of the incident, however, had a different report, as he confirmed that there was no case of ballot snatching at the polling unit.
According to the publication, the CP said the security team patrolled around the nooks and crannies of the state and submitted that the election had been generally peaceful.
Mba said, “Everything you see here is the characteristics of Nigeria’s style of democracy
“We have patrolled the city, and villages, largely a very peaceful election.
“What you saw here is one of those few areas where people disagree. Disagreement is a core characteristic of politicking, electioneering, and voting.
“We are here to intervene when there are such tension and solve the problem and move on . We were told there were gunshots, no one was injured, no casualties.
“That speaks volumes on the kind of security arrangements we put in place if we were not on the ground if the arrangement wasn’t tight, strong, and effective enough. Probably we would have come here and received the news that one person was killed and a series of injuries but we don’t have such.”