Instead of having 12,000 people working at the local government elections in Oyo State, there were no police or security agents on the main roads in Ibadan.
Additionally, the rule to limit people and vehicles from moving around didn’t seem to work because people and vehicles were still moving around the city.
The state’s top police officer, Adebola Hamza, said on Friday that 12,000 security staff are working at the local government elections.
Hamzat said at a meeting with security leaders and the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission that there are 8,000 police officers and 2,125 other security officers, but no soldiers, who will be working for the elections.
The police chief also said that there will be limits on driving starting at 6 a.m. “Until 6 p. m”
However, our reporter who went around on Saturday morning noticed that the police and other security agents were not there.
At 7:45 a. m, there were no security guards from General Gas in Akobo to Dugbe, and in other major areas like Iwo-Road, Challenge, Apata, Bere, Gate, Ido, Omi-Adio, they were also not seen.
People were driving their own cars, and commercial drivers and motorcycle riders were taking people around the city.
People were waiting at bus stops for buses, tricycles, and motorcycles to take them to where they needed to go.
Some workers like tire repairers and pipe fixers were doing their work without any problems.
Some traders opened their shops to do business, even though the local government elections were happening.
The elections had problems with officials and materials arriving late at many polling stations.
At 7:30 a. m, some people in charge of the election were still waiting for the things they needed to do their job.
They were seen in Ibadan North-West and Ibadan South-West getting election materials for different polling stations.
At voting stations 19, 20, 21 in Ward 10 of Ibadan South-West council area, no one was there to help with voting and there were no voting supplies at 8:05 am.
At polling units 14 and 15 in Ward 11, Ibadan South-West, no ad-hoc staff from OYSIEC had come by 8:30 a. m, except for one policeman and a party agent.
Voter names still need to be put on the walls. There isn’t anything showing this is a voting place, except for two party workers at the polling stations.
People selling food were cooking and setting up their shops near some voting places, hoping to sell their food to people who were going to vote.
Workers hired by the government were spotted working in the middle of the Ring Road at Mile 110. At the same time, children were starting to gather in some streets to play football.
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