Armed hoodlums suspected to be political thugs, on Saturday, were on rampage in some parts of Lagos State where they viciously enforced their agenda, ranging from denying persons of targeted ethnic nationalities from casting their ballots.
Victims of the vicious attacks alleged that the thugs were targeting non-Yoruba residents of the State, whom they allegedly chased away from their polling units.
“If you no fit vote APC, no come outside oo. This one no be like last time oo,” a well know clannish politician, MC Oluomo, had earlier warned non-Yoruba.
In the Ojodu part of Lagos, reports say thugs were seen moving inside three coaster buses wearing masks. They went from one polling unit to another driving away intending voters they considered not supporters of the APC.
A wailing lady, who chose to remain anonymous for security reasons, narrated how she was pounced on by the thugs in her polling unit, preventing her from casting her ballot for her preferred candidate.
At another polling unit in the same area, another intending voter was slapped by thugs and driven away because they suspected he was not an APC supporter.
A career driver, Ayo, in an adjacent polling unit, showed a head injury he sustained from trying to rescue an Igbo lady who was attacked by some of the thugs.
“This is not fair, I am a full-fledged Yoruba man but those thugs hit me on the head just because I tried to stop them from attacking an Igbo lady who had lined up to vote. Look at my head (he pointed at the wound). Is this an election? People should feel free to vote for their preferred candidates. But with a situation like this, we are no longer in a democracy,” he lamented.
Similar scenarios were replicated in several parts of Lagos on Saturday.
A similar situation was reported in Alimosho area, which accounts for the largest number of potential voters in Lagos State.
There, thugs were reportedly moving from house to house, warning people who were not ready to vote for APC not to venture to step out of their homes.
In the highbrow Victoria Garden City (VGC), INEC officials were said to have moved all the polling units outside the estate, for their safety.
An INEC official simply said: “It’s an order from the Local Government Council.”
The turn-out of voters in Lagos today has been abysmally low due to fear of harassment by thugs.