Lagos and Ogun States, the two key gateway states to Nigeria’s commercial capital, are holding local government council elections on Saturday (today), the contiguous states have announced.
The polls are to election chairman and councilors for the local government areas in both states, the third tier of government in Nigeria’s federal structure.
Both states have also announced the restriction of vehicular movement within and across them: for nine hours in Ogun, from 7 am to 4 pm, and seven hours in Lagos, 8 am to 3 pm.
The elections are being contested on political party platforms. In Lagos State, the contest is chiefly between the ruling party, the All Progressives’ Congress, and the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party.
In Ogun State, the PDP said it has withdrawn from the election, in protest against what it called the dubious stand of the State’s Independent Electoral Commission, the umpire for the polls.
In Lagos, the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, has said the restriction on movement will be enforced during the stipulated period. He told police officers on Friday to collaborate with other security agents deployed for same purpose, to provide adequate security, while discharging their duties according to the Standard Operating Procedure of the Nigeria Police and extant electoral laws.
“The police and other security agencies deployed for the exercise will not condone any act of thuggery, hooliganism, electoral malpractices and criminality in any part of the state before, during and after the Local Government Councils elections,” Odumosu said, as he warned politicians against taking actions that could engender violence.
He announced that the police had put in place measures to enforce the restriction on movement, warning that only people on electoral duties will be exempted.
