Hundreds of residents of the Ado-Odo/Ota and Abeokuta metropolis in Ogun, on Saturday trooped out enmasse to cast their votes in the ongoing Governorship and House of Assembly election.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Correspondents, who monitored the exercise, report that voters stormed many of the polling centres visited as early as 8.00 a.m to exercise their voting rights.
NAN reports that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (NEC) were on ground as at 7.30 a.m with electoral materials before voters arrival.
NAN check reveals that voting commenced in most of the centres by 8.30 a.m with accreditation of voters.
The voting process was peaceful and orderly at Ward 13, Unit 2, Igbore Township Hall polling centre in Abeokuta South Local Government area, where voters filed in a single line with party agents in ensuring cooperation to ensure a seamless process.
The situation was the same at Ward 11, Unit 15, African Church Grammar School Polling Centre in Ita-Eko area of Abeokuta North Local Government area.
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned very well in most of the polling centres visited with few cases of malfunctioned systems in areas of activation of codes.
Also, voting in some of the polling centres visited in Ado-Odo/Ota, took the same peaceful and orderly pattern.
At Ward 6, Unit 12, Iganmode area, the aged and people living with disabilities were given preferential treatments as a special line was created for them.
Commenting, Mr Kunke Alao, a voter, told NAN at Ward 4, Unit 3, Methodist Primary School Polling Centre, Ota, expressed satisfaction at the peaceful and orderly conduct of the process.
Alao, commending INEC for “effective logistics”, however, urged the commission to ensure immediate electronic transmission of the results from the polling centres across the state.
NAN noticed that both local and international observers were not on ground in most of the polling units visited.
However, restriction on human and vehicular movements in and out of the state was strictly enforced, but people on essential duties were, however, allowed to move about freely.
There was a heavy presence of security personnel on major roads and highways across the state.
NAN reports that armed policemen and personnel of sister security agencies such as NSCDC, NDLEA, FRSC and the state-owned traffic enforcement agency were sighted at strategic locations.
The military personnel were also sighted on Lagos-Abeokuta Road; Sagamu – Interchange Junction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as well as the Sango/Ijoko/Agbado Road .
NAN check revealed that presence of security officials were noticeable in many polling centres visited.
