By DADA AYOKHAI
The Edo State deputy governor, Hon. Philip Shaibu has given a pat on the back to the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDOSIEC) for its almost seamless management of the just-conducting local government poll.
Hon. Shaibu after casting his vote at his Unit 5 polling station at the Azama Primary School, Jattu, took some time out to address the press about his observations .
An elated Hon. Shaibu commended EDOSIEC, the voters as well and the security agencies for the relative peace and tranquility that pervaded the entire voting and collation process, adding Edo State has once again proven why it is the heartbeat of the country.
According to him, voters turnout in his polling unit was quite impressive, hoping the same would be replicated in other polling units across the Edo North district and the state.
In particular, he was also optimistic of the PDP sweeping the poll in all the 18 local council areas .
The LG poll has just ended. Some of the councillorship results were announced at the Wards while the result sheets for the chairmanship election were taken to the EDOSIEC office in Benin, accompanied by tight security and the party agents, where they are expected to be declared by the chairman of the electoral body
Although voter turnout was considerably low at the beginning, it picked up steam later in the day. when the voters began to turn up in twos and threes and also took the pains to locate their names on the register before they were allowed to cast their votes.
The talking point of the LG poll was generally the low turnout among the voters. Unlike the February 25 and Match 18 general elections which witnessed a large turnout of voters, the LG poll recorded a poor outing but was relatively peaceful
Some of the respondents who spoke with Borderline News24 attributed the low turnout to the fact that voters regard LG polls as one-way traffic, saying it is not worth what one should waste his or her precious time on since the ruling party will end up “appropriating” everything to itself
