Voters’ apathy greets Osun LG election

General apathy by residents of Osun across the 33 local government areas on Saturday marred the ongoing council election in the state.

The local government election, being conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission, barely a month to the end of the tenure of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola-led administration, was ongoing in all the 322 wards in the state.

There were no visible presence of voters in many designated polling units across the 33 local government areas.

NAN correspondents gathered in Osogbo, Olorunda, Ejigbo, Iwo, Egebedore, Ife East, Ilesa West, Ilesa East, Atakumosa East and Atakumosa West Local Governments, that only in in few cases, there was poor turnout of electorate.

It was also gathered from some electorate that the poor turnout might be as a result of lack of adequate publicity about the election.

Those who spoke on condition of anonymity with NAN said that they were not even aware of any election since there was no campaign by any of the political parties.

At Polling Units, 8, 9, 10 and 11, Ward 3, Asubiaro, Osogbo, less than 100 accredited voters were recorded as of 11:00 a.m.

NAN also gathered that the ballot papers being used by OSIEC for the election did not contain the logos of any of the political parties.

However, only a “YES or NO” boxes were provided in the ballot papers for voters to thumbprint.

A Presiding Officer at Unit 8, Folashade Olanrewaju, told NAN that the election started at 9.00 a.m in the unit.

Ms Olanrewaju said that out of 665 registered voters at the Unit, only 15 had voted as of 11:00 a.m.

She said that they were still expecting more voters to come out before the end of the voting by 3.00 p.m.

At Ward 16, Unit II, Dada Estate Osogbo, a Presiding Officer, who pleaded anonymity, said the total number of registered voters was 1,792.

She said they were still expecting voters to come out to vote.

Reacting, Bose Badmus, a party agent with the All Progressives Congress (APC) at Unit 20 Ward 10, said she could not say what was responsible for the poor turnout.

Mrs Badmus, however, expressed hope that voters would still come out before the end of the election.

At some Polling Units in Ile-Ife, it was observed that some officials of OSIEC arrived late at their polling units.

At Catholic Technical College, Ilode, Ward 11, Unit 001, Ile-Ife, about 20 voters were sighted on a queue to cast their votes as of 11.30 a.m.

It was gathered that there was low turnout in many of the polling units visited, while commercial activities went on as usual within the town.

In Ilesa East and Ilesa West Local Governments, there was no presence of security personnel in any of the polling units visited in the town, while only APC agents were sighted in many of the places designated for voting.

In many polling centres, only agents with APC tags were seen with only few voters present as of the time of the visit at about 11.30 a.m.

Some security personnel were only sighted in many parts of the major the towns, enforcing the restriction order by the state government within the town.

The “No Movement” order was not observed by many of the motorcycle operators who were seen moving freely with their passengers.

Also, only public places were closed to business, while the privately owned outfits were going about their normal business.

The state government had announced restriction of movement between 7.00 a.m and 3.00 p.m.

NAN reports that the Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), Segun Oladitan, had on Thursday announced that only one political party signified intention to contest in the election.

Mr Oladitan, however, did not mention the name of the political party that signified interest.

NAN recalls that the local government election in Osun had been a matter of controversy among the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), APC and OSIEC.