By Jethro Ibileke
Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki has condemned alleged snatching if ballot box by some yet-to-be-identified persons.
Some angry voters had waylaid the Governor and his wife to inform him that some security operatives had invade their residence, beat them and took away one of their family members, following allegation of snatching of ballot box at Ward 4, Units 42, located not too far from where the Governor was voting.
Obaseki who frowned at the alleged snatching of ballot box, noted that it doesn’t make sense to snatch ballot box that doesn’t have ballot papers in it.
According to him, “It is too early to snatch ballot because voting has not really taken place yet, we need to reconfirm that story. It doesn’t make sense to snatch ballot box that doesn’t have ballot papers in it.
“We will check that and verify but I am confident because we made adequate preparations to ensure that every polling units has at least five security personnel. If it is not the police, Civil Defence or DSS.
“It is too early to make any conclusive statement, two hours into voting. We are going to go round and see what is going on across the state and population centers,” he added.
The Governor who voted voted at exactly 12.14 am shortly after his wife, Betsy Obaseki voted, condemned the late arrival of voting materials at the various polling units.
He however commended the large turnout of voters.
“Although INEC started a bit late in this center but you can see the turnout is quite impressive. My concern is that the process should be hastened so that we can clear the crowd.
“From my own observation and three or four votings I witnessed, it is almost flawless,” he said.