I didn’t sense danger as I approached, even though I noticed people whom I perceived to be thugs in the vicinity. What gave me a sense of safety wasn’t just the presence of some unarmed police officers but the soldiers on the streets.
I was covering the polling unit of Bola Tinubu, now president-elect, in Ikeja on Saturday for the general elections when my phone rang. It was my friend and colleague, Bola Ajayi, who called to share her first-hand experience of how she was forced to delete pictures from her phone after being caught recording thugs intimidating voters at a polling unit in Oshodi area of Lagos.
When I was done in Ikeja, I told my driver to take me to Oshodi. He was sceptical about going but drove there anyway
The first polling unit we arrived at was in Orile-Oshodi ward, located inside Methodist Primary School.
A handful of people were on the road leading to the school. As I approached, I still didn’t sense danger, even though there were some people whom I perceived to be thugs in the vicinity. What gave me a sense of safety was not just the presence of some unarmed police officers but the soldiers on the street.
“Cold Pepsi, cold water, we have it,” some traders who appeared unbothered about the exercise tried to get my attention to patronise them as I made my way into the school. The least thing on my mind was getting a cold drink.
As I tried to navigate my way to the polling unit within the school, on my right were three journalists. One of them looked familiar, we might have met on the field. As I approached them, I told them the information I got. One said, what we wanted there was peace. Even with the explanation of how a fellow journalist’s phone was seized and her pictures deleted, it appeared that they wanted peace and I didn’t.
Some metres away from where we stood was a transport executive, Musiliu Akinsanya, also known as Mc Oluomo. He was donned in a white attire, white cap and a pair of white footwear. He was surrounded by a dozen men or more.
I left them, since we spoke different languages. I turned to my left and walked to the polling unit. As of 1:50 p.m., there was no voter in sight. I checked the list of accredited voters pasted on the wall close by and observed that they had many voters registered at that polling unit. I took a picture of the ballot boxes with the electoral officers in the background to show that at that time, there was no voter at the unit, which might be a confirmation of the news I got.
I then asked one of the electoral officers how many voters were being expected. She told me 992. Then I asked a follow up question that appeared to anger someone who was not even part of the electoral process (he had nothing on that indicated he was an official).
Before I went out to report the process, I understood that the process of coverage might not be smooth. Since 2018 that I have been covering elections, I had heard different stories of my colleagues and others being attacked, but never had a experience.
“Okay, there are 992 people who are supposed to vote here. So far, can you give me an idea of how many people have come out to vote,” I asked one of the INEC officers. Then this unknown pot-bellied, dark complexioned man got angry and asked who I was. It got me confused because I didn’t direct my question at him. I thought he was someone I could reason with, I started by telling him that how my being a journalist required that I asked certain questions.
He started raining curses on me. Then his cohort, I believe, came and I tried to explain what happened but he told me to shut up.
Then the dark man fumed and said he would slap me. Perhaps because there was a police officer, I stood my ground. What broke the camel’s back was when another man who was seated not too far from the ballot boxes said that if not that I was a woman, he would have beaten me. Then came the dark one again that said he did not even care if I was a woman. While he was saying this, he appeared to be angry with my presence at that polling unit and was moving closer and raining curses on me and ‘sending me home.’
I quickly walked away from him and left as his curses accompanied me to the exit. It was a scary encounter.
I saw the police officer around was not armed but he could have put in some words for me. But he didn’t.