~Party member trained as electoral official cries out cos of foul play
Last Saturday morning being the May 29th 2021 the scheduled day for my party's primary election, as an Electoral Official earlier trained on how to conduct the party primaries, when I arrived at the APC Ojodu LCDA Party Secretariat at Ajayi road in Oke-Ira, someone unknown to me was holding a list with names of electoral officials to work with the Returning Officers but to my amazement, I noticed that the names that were on the list have been doctored and changed to those who never took part in the pre-election training for officials instead they replaced the names of some who had taken part belonging to another group. This had happened even earlier as there was this same attempt not to allow us partake in the training but we fought for our rights as members.
Moreover, upon arrival at the venue of the dispatch of the electoral material, I heard the conversation between some of the untrained personnel who surfaced only on the day of the election saying "Thank God, we will manipulate the votes since it is only Team Faleke people that were chosen as the electoral Adhoc-staff". I was dumbfounded but kept calm until when the Council Chairman Hon Oloro arrived and a subtle protest by the trained personnel rented the air and they started shouting in protest for their expunged names on the list.
The Returning Officer and Hon Oloro quickly intervened and sorted things out by replacing four (4) trained electoral officials on the list thus out of the eighteen (18) officials, fourteen (14) people were for Team Faleke.
Upon arrival at my place of posting at Ward D, the membership register given to us was not corresponding with the register of the ward, in particular, the register was messed up with varieties of wards. Then came Hon Oloro and the returning officer again because we had to call their attention to it. So, they both addressed the crowd to calm down promising that things will be sorted out.
After his speech, some old people believed to be sponsored by one Mr Badrudeen Agbede (Former NURTW Chairman in Lagos State and father of an aspirant) were saying they want to change the party directives by writing their names on paper and allowing anyone with membership cards unverified to vote; this was what caused the youths in that area to revolt such attempt to rig.
Although as the protest buildup, some guys said whether they vote or not it is not their business because they have collected the sum of #5,000 and they came all the way from Oke-Aro in Ogun State to vote and they were invited by one Honorable Faleke while some mentioned Mr Agbede.
I am Bello Bilikis
Electoral Official, Ojodu LCDA
#MyExperience
#OjoduPryElection2021
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