Yesterday, chaos erupted in three Local Government Areas of Lagos State, namely Ojo, Apapa, and Mushin, as Musiliu Akinsanya (also known as M.C. Oluomo), leader of the Lagos State Park and Garage Management Committee, threatened and prevented Independent National Electoral Committee (INEC) accredited vehicles from leaving the Councils’ offices with election materials. This caused confusion and raised concerns about the safety and fairness of the ongoing presidential election.
The INEC and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) a few weeks ago on the logistics of moving election materials. However, yesterday's incident indicates that the MOU has not been fully implemented.
The Lagos State Chapter Chairman of NARTO, Alhaji Kayode Odunowo, confirmed the incident, stating that he received reports from drivers in the three locations of harassment and threats to NARTO members by the Park and Garage Management Committee. Despite the presence of police officers, members of the Committee continued to stop drivers from moving materials out of those locations. Odunowo reported the incident to the Executive members of NARTO and is awaiting their instructions before taking action.
The Lagos State NARTO Task Force Chairman, Comrade Ridwan Bello, also spoke about the incident. He said that M.C Oluomo’s boys are sabotaging the logistics process of the materials and that if urgent steps are not taken to call them to order, the entire election process in Lagos State could be truncated.
Efforts to reach Jimoh Buhari, spokesman for Oluomo, were unsuccessful. A close associate of Oluomo, however, said that he is unsure if Oluomo would make any threat that could undermine Tinubu’s chances of winning today’s presidential election.
The Lagos Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, stated that the election is on course and that he does not need to react to every issue. INEC Commissioner for Voters Education, Mr. Festus Okoye, said that he has not been briefed or informed of the incident and that it may be counter-productive to speculate.
This incident raises concerns about the safety and fairness of the election, and urgent action must be taken to ensure that the election process is not compromised.