I went to Owa Alero in Ika North East and also spent time in Ika South to observe the elections there. The PDP’s vice presidential running mate, and outgoing governor of Delta state, Ifeanyi Okowa, is from there, near Agbor.
From my observation, people turned out really early to vote. Some polling units had a good voter turnout while some had just a little. There was a particular unit where there were over 700 registered voters but just 178 or so came out to vote.
A GOVERNOR VOTES
The governor came out between 8.30am and 9am to his polling unit at Eghoma Primary School. His daughters were there – including one of his daughters [Marilyn] who’s running for state house of assembly. It wasn’t her election, but she was on ground, and his wife was there too.
I noticed voter inducement. From the beginning at all the polling units, I noticed there was vote buying. Because there was no cash, I noticed people writing down their names. Some people wrote down their names before voting, while others wrote them down after voting.
WHAT SECRET BALLOT?
In some polling units, there was no secret ballot. They just went in there, and after thumb printing, they’d come out, without folding their ballot papers. They’d leave it open and signal any of the party agents, who were watching, since the voter already told them they were giving them [the agent] their vote.
after thumb printing, they’d come out, without folding their ballot papers. They’d leave it open and signal any of the party agents, who were watching…
Bolanle Olabimtan
A “HELPING HAND” FROM PARTY AGENTS
So they put it into the ballot box while the party agent was watching, they’d write their names down somewhere. And afterwards the agents would attend to them.
There was a particular polling unit where the voters weren’t even the ones putting in the ballot papers into the ballot box. There was a particular guy, a PDP agent, which I know because I checked. They handed it over to him and he put it into the ballot box, and the person would go and write their names in a book.
There were police officers there who were aware of what was going on. I had just come in and noticed straightaway, there’s no way the security agents wouldn’t have noticed either.
After lunch, I went back to check the polling units that had started sorting and counting. I went to Owa Model Primary School, it had just a few people. It was the one with 178 voters.
COUNTING DELAYS
Most of them were Labour Party supporters. They were complaining that voting ended before 2pm and the INEC officials had refused to start counting. They informed me that INEC officials told them that they were waiting for orders from higher up before beginning the count. I couldn’t corroborate this independently.
I got there at just a few minutes to 4pm when the most senior official started addressing them. He was speaking to them in the local language [Ika], so I didn’t understand what he was saying. I took out my phone to take a picture, and another official got really angry. He barked at me, and then another person joined in.
I stood firm, I already identified myself as a journalist. He had no right to tell me to drop my phone and not take a picture or not to report. And most people there backed me. I was there to do my job.
THE RESPECTABLE THUGS ARRIVE
A few minutes later they started sorting and counting. About 30 minutes later, a group of people came in. I don’t know whether to call them thugs because they didn’t look like thugs. They looked responsible. These are the types of people you would see in public and greet respectfully. They looked really responsible.
I don’t know whether to call them thugs because they didn’t look like thugs. They looked responsible. These are the types of people you would see in public and greet respectfully. They looked really responsible.
Bolanle Olabimtan
They came in three cars. And as soon as they came, they identified themselves as PDP guys and were very open about it. They told everybody to stop, and ordered everyone out. They ordered INEC officials to pack up. They immediately started packing, they didn’t wait a second. Everyone wanted to be safe – your life is more important.
The police were just watching. At first they tried to act as mediators, but there wasn’t much they could do as they were unarmed. There were other security agents, perhaps vigilantes, who held guns.
THE RESISTANCE
They met resistance from the Labour Party supporters. Most of them were shouting that they’d been there since and there had been no counting. They complained that all of a sudden, the PDP guys were there and accused all of them of working together.
They told the INEC guys to pack up and go to Eghoma Primary School, telling them that was where the counting would take place.
Most people insisted that they had to count there, otherwise it would be invalid.
THINGS GET MESSY
From then on, things got messy, even the senior INEC staff member who was barking at me earlier was involved. I was assaulted, one of them hit me, and pushed me to the ground, and they took my phone and ran off. I ran after them, others ran after them too. At some point they surrounded me, telling me that since I arrived at the polling unit I’d been causing trouble. They accused me of trying to be something I wasn’t. All this while, it was raining.
They succeeded in chasing out everybody. An INEC adhoc staff member was crying, a young female corper.
THE PHONE INQUISITOR
I’d decided my phone was gone, and I wouldn’t be getting it back. Then as I was leaving, one of them drove next to me and asked me to come. He asked me to use my thumbprint to unlock my phone, which I did.
He went through the entire photo gallery. So not just not just my camera roll. He went through WhatsApp pictures. He went through other folders. He deleted whatever he wanted, questioning why I was taking pictures.
Earlier on, I’d been secretly recording, and it wasn’t as if I’d held the phone noticeably. I was just recording surreptitiously. He deleted everything, including other pictures and videos I took of other polling units.
He went to my WhatsApp and opened my private messages with different people. I can’t count how many he opened, but he opened quite a number of messages to be sure. He opened my work message to be sure I hadn’t already sent those things to the office.
He opened my Instagram, checking the feed. He checked my Instagram DMs to make sure that I hadn’t sent anything to anybody. Then he also went to the recycle bin and deleted everything he’d deleted from my camera.
He was thorough, very thorough.
He also went to the recycle bin and deleted everything he’d deleted from my camera.
Bolanle Olabimtan
He was thorough, very thorough.
Then he gave me my phone and wanted rid of me.
My Okada rider spoke Ika and he explained what they were saying. He said those [PDP] guys were telling them to take the ballot boxes to the other centre, that their boys were already there and would take care of things. Those guys were moving around town moving from one place to another.
THE GOVERNOR’S VOTE COUNTS
Later in the evening I went back to Governor Okowa’s polling unit while they were collating. When I got there the gate was locked. I think I only got to enter because I went in with the private cameraman attached to his daughter. He was just in front of me, and we’d already had a conversation earlier. I think they let me in because they thought I was with him.
The collation there took so long, and I don’t know why. Eventually they finished counting around 6pm or 7pm – it was already getting dark at that point.
When they finished, Marilyn was still there. They brought food for the INEC officials and the security operatives.
There was a young woman, an INEC ad hoc staff member who was taking a comfort break. I called her aside and asked what was going on, why was it taking so long? I asked her specifically whether the governor was winning his polling unit. She had this expression, a facial expression which wasn’t particularly great.
I thought perhaps he was losing his polling unit, but turned out not to be so. He won his polling unit.
He won his polling unit.
Bolanle Olabimtan
There were predominantly PDP agents at the count. They sat together with the INEC officials, going back and forth and doing the calculations together. Eventually they released the result.
He pulled in 160 votes, Labour Party had just six, and APC had four votes. He won his polling unit by a landslide.
As reported in a Twitter Spaces hosted by the Cable on the 26th of February 2023. Edited for clarity and coherence.
Bolanle Olabimtan is a senior reporter for the Cable, she tweets at @bola_bimtan.
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