Late arrival of electoral officers in many parts of Lagos nearly marred the Presidential and National Assembly elections as the electorate trooped out to vote for their choice candidates.
Except for pockets of violence and disruptions of the exercise in a few places, especially areas dominated by non-indigenes, the polls went smoothly.
While there was low turnout in some parts of the state, especially in Ikeja and its environs, voters turned out massively on Lagos Island including the highbrow Ikoyi in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of the state.
Daily Trust on Sunday reports that there was a major logistics hitch following the controversy over the use of commercial drivers affiliated to the Lagos State Parks and Management Committee chaired by Musiliu Akinsanya popularly known as MC Oluomo.
A Federal High Court in Lagos had barred INEC from using Oluomo to distribute sensitive materials for the election.
It was learnt that INEC later made a last-minute arrangement with some members of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) to help with transportation logistics.
Voting started at some polling units in Ikoyi, Ikorodu, parts of Ikeja by 12pm while the collation of results was ongoing at some polling units at night.
Pockets of violence recorded in Surulere, Oshodi, others
The voting process which started on a peaceful note later turned violent after armed thugs invaded some polling centres in the state.
The armed thugs who besieged areas in Oshodi, Itire, Aguda, Surulere and Badagry also set ablaze some ballot papers and boxes in the areas.
The thugs also injured some officials of INEC before carting away ballot boxes containing already thumb-printed ballot papers.
Labour Party springs surprises
Meanwhile, early polling unit results show that Labour Party is doing well in many parts of the state, beating the APC in many polling units while the PDP came a distant third.
Early results from some polling units saw Peter Obi winning many polling units including picking one polling unit in Alausa, near the polling unit of Ahmed Tinubu.
*Text, except headline, courtesy: DAILY TRUST
Reported by Abiodun Alade, Abdullateef Aliyu, Eugene Agha, Vincent Nwanma and Jide Olasunkami, Lagos
