Late arrival of election materials sparked off violent protest in Anifowoshe ‘ward 08’ Ubandawaki, Ilorin West LGA of Ilorin during the presidential and National Assembly elections.
The ward is the voting spot for former Minister of Sports, who is also the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate for Kwara Central, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi.
Elections materials did not arrive at the centre until around 1:00pm.
But voters endured the scorching heat awaiting the materials and the officials deployed to the area.
Abdullahi in an all white attire also joined the queue deploring every attempt made in his honour to shunt the queue.
Moments before his turn, a supposed agent of a rival political party insisted that the candidate should be the last to cast his vote, citing “equal rights.”
All attempts at convincing him that the Minister had actually taken his turn proved abortive and when it was apparent that he would not allow him to vote, Abdullahi’s supporters had to bundle him out of the way of their boss.
Through out this moment, there was no presence of any security operatives on ground in the area.
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The Kwara Police Command had adopted a patrolling mechanism for the monitoring of the polls.
The agent in question had cleverly put a call across to his fellows who had promptly come in their tens throwing chairs at will with threats to kill. The Minister was unperturbed urging his supporters to maintain their calm.
The melee delayed voting about 30 minutes before the police patrol team came in to restore sanity into the system.
Abdullahi blamed the development on the late arrival of election materials to the area.
He however lauded the INEC staff on duty and “my entire people in general” for not allowing emotions to override their sense of decency during that “moment of anger.”
