Twenty-four hours before the opening of polls, the atmosphere has been mostly calm and normal in Edo State despite the heated debates and allegations in the last couple of weeks. However, there was no mistaking the heavy presence of the security operatives, but citizens went about their routine activities without any sign of panic. The
Twenty-four hours before the opening of polls, the atmosphere has been mostly calm and normal in Edo State despite the heated debates and allegations in the last couple of weeks. However, there was no mistaking the heavy presence of the security operatives, but citizens went about their routine activities without any sign of panic.
The presence of security operatives from the police to the military personnel, has been visible in the state since Thursday with the blaring of sirens moderately while patrolling the state. Though it looked like a precautionary measure to keep the violent element from making suspicious moves in the state, their movement was raising the consciousness of the residents about the electioneering activities.
Although the election is being contested by 17 candidates, the race has been streamlined to a three-horse race between the three candidates of the most popular political parties in the state, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party, Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives of Congress, and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party. While the campaign has ended in the state since Thursday as stipulated by the electoral bodies, the campaign insignia and signposts of these candidates still dominate the walls of some sensitive parts of Benin City and other nearby settlements.
Major commercial places such as car parks, markets, and filling stations looked busy as some of the residents were moving steadily with their daily businesses while both commercial and private vehicle owners were trying to refill their automobiles against tomorrow when there will not be movements, except for the election frontliners like the media and civil society organisations who will be on the field to monitor and observe the process in their respective locations of assignments.
It was also a big moment of business for hoteliers, as almost all hotels in Benin City were fully booked as of Thursday, September 19, 2024, by politicians who were having their last-minute permutations in some of the hotels, while different organisations that are not based in the state have also been imported for the election duties.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has distributed sensitive election materials to different local governments, where they will be deployed to the respective polling units accordingly. Media personnel and election observers trooped in and out of the INEC Secretariat in Benin to get their accreditation tags for easy movement on election day.
Meanwhile, the INEC secretariat was secured by police officers who were armed and displaying a show of force to prevent any infiltrations of mischief makers who could be plotting to disrupt the process of collection of necessary materials and collation of results.
Similarly, at the police headquarters in the state, hundreds of police personnel were seen awaiting deployment to other parts of the state for their assignment.
INEC Denies Rumour of Attack on Secretariat
Against the backdrop of speculations that the office of the electoral commission in the state was attacked by some hoodlums on Thursday, the Public Relations Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Ms. Toyin Buoro, debunked the claim, saying that none of the commission’s offices was attacked by thugs.
She explained that the offices of the commission have been on watch by security agencies since yesterday, and that made it impossible for an attempt to cause unrest in the vicinity. “As you can see, everywhere has been peaceful as we go on with the distribution of means of identification of journalists and civil society organisations. You can also see the presence of security agencies around this place, and that is how it is in other parts of the state. So, there is no such information that thugs invaded the INEC office to disturb the process at any time,” she explained.
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