Tension flared at polling unit 027 in Ogba, Ifako Ijaiye LGA, Lagos, when supporters of the APC chairmanship candidate, Usman Akanbi Hamzat, assaulted a Labour Party (LP) agent, Spencer Dominic, on Saturday.
According to eyewitnesses, the drama unfolded as the APC backers demanded that Dominic move behind the electoral officers while Hamzat cast his vote.
When he refused, they allegedly dragged and slapped him, even as security personnel stood by without intervening.
With the situation escalating, a few community members stepped forward to halt the assault, restoring calm.
Spencer Dominic recounted the ordeal:
“I have to stay behind the electoral officers, watching the people coming to vote to confirm their voter cards. When the chairman came and asked me to leave the place, I said no, that I needed to view the voters cards of the people.”
“Then, the APC people started beating me.”
One APC official, Gbenga Adebowale, defended the assault, arguing that Dominic shouldn’t have been positioned so closely to the officials:
“The chairman of the council is the existing chairman… you are now asking him his voter card.”
“Who are you? As an agent you want to question the chairman of the local government… there is a rule to every electioneering and polling unit agent officers, there are distance that you must maintain.”
“So when you are standing behind the electoral officers, that means you want to cause problems and that what was they were telling him and he was aggressive about it.”
The incident occurred amid low voter turnout reported across the state during the local government elections.
