Ballot booklets go missing in Ogudu Kosofe collation centre

By Abdulfatah On Mar 9, 2019

A ballot box filled with ballot is pictured before being counted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at a polling station i

Joy Anyim

Nine ballot booklets meant for ward 4, voting centre in Kosefe area of Lagos have gone missing at the Ogudu collation centre.

A visit made by the correspondent to the centre between 7.35am and 8.30am saw the People Democratic Party (PDP) agents protesting the missing ballot booklets.

A PDP agent, Kunle Aladiyan said that they discovered the missing booklets this morning while INEC officials were distributing election materials to each wards.

Aladiyan who said the same issue had happened in 2015, maintained they were not going to participate in the election without the missing booklets.

“ We told them while they were bringing the materials to count each carton booklets, but the INEC officials refused.

“That is how we lost 2015 election. We participated in the exercise thinking it would favour us, only for the missing booklets to find their ways to ballot. We don’t want to be fooled again,” he alleged.

A PDP Senatorial candidate in the last National Assembly election, Mrs Sherifat Olushola-Hassan also spoke on the development saying, the party will participate on the ground that all ballot papers belonging to ward 4 will not be distributed.

An INEC official from Kosofe who did not want his name to be mentioned said the officers that collected the materials only counted per cartons from CBN, saying that if they have counted booklets per carton, they would have found out from the missing items.

The official Said the booklets of ward 4 will not be used at all to avoid problems.

Speaking on the matter, the Area Commander of Area H Ogudu , Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Miller Dantawaye, said he was there when the booklets were discovered missing.

Dantawaye who led other security agencies to provide security for the centre and Kosofe area also said their duty was only to provide security for the area, adding that the parties and INEC would resolved the problem.

Operatives from the DSS, civil defence were on ground at the centre, while the army were seen patrolling the Ogudu road, with a view to check breakdown of law and order in the area.