The Saturday local government elections in Ogun were largely characterised by a low turnout of voters and logistics challenges at the early stage of the exercise in most council areas.

The exercise across the state reported that the elections scheduled between 8 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. did not start until 11:00 a.m. in most polling centres.

Most polling units visited at Oke-Ilewo and Adigbe areas of Abeokuta-South LGA and Ibafo and Mowe areas in Obafemi-Owode LGA  were virtually empty at 11:00 a.m.

Checks revealed that the election materials and electoral officials left many local government headquarters, including Ado-Odo/Ota, Abeokuta-North and Sagamu, as late as 11:00 a.m.

Voting started at around 10:30 a.m. in some polling units in Ikenne LGA, including  Ward 3, polling units 2 and 3 in Iperu, where Gov. Dapo Abiodun was expected to cast his vote.

Residents who turned out for the election expressed disappointment over what they described as a “poor arrangement” for the exercise. One of them, who identified himself as Johnson, at polling unit 1, ward 15 in the Ijeja area of Abeokuta-South council area, said he was not disappointed at the low turnout.

“People don’t usually reckon with local government elections because of large scale rigging,” he said.

Meanwhile, the restriction order on movement was strictly enforced in most of the local government areas. A heavy presence of security personnel was also noticeable in major streets across the state to ensure peace and orderliness.

(NAN)