Obasanjo urges losers to bow out gracefully

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The Presidential and National Assembly progressed peaceful in most parts of Ogun state save that there were noticeable cases of inadequate voting materials, card readers unable to process voters cards quickly enough and low enthusiasm among the voters.

There were also indications that the electorate voted based on preferences for candidates on ballot papers and less on party affiliations, with some of them saying while they voted for a particular candidate in party A for the position of President, yet proceeded to cast votes for different candidates across other parties for the Senate and House of Representatives seats respectively.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who cast his vote at ward 11, polling unit 22, Abeokuta, around 11: 04am, said there would definitely be winners and losers but urged contestants to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship.

Obasanjo advised “winners to show spirit of magnanimity while losers should also bow out gracefully.”

Obasanjo said: “I believe in my own polling station, there was a small delay, the material arrived late for about two hours which can be accommodated, other than that, the process went smoothly, I went through the card reader with my PVC and my photograph appeared, then we had a bit of problem sorting out my thumb print and then when they were about to sort it out, they made me go through the process of voting, they gave the ballot paper for the Presidential, Senatorial and the House of Representatives.

“It was very orderly even though there are many people waiting, waiting either to cast their votes or waiting to welcome me because now I vote in my own compound where I was born.

“In any competition there will always the winners and losers, what anybody in any competition must be prepared for as a good sportsman is to have the mind that says if I win, I show magnanimity, if I lose, I will also bow out graciously.

“That is what any competition is all about. You can’t say if you are going into any competition, you must win at all cost, then it is no longer a competition.”

Also, Governor Ibikunle Amosun hailed the peaceful process but lamented of inadequate materials in some locations in comparison with the available voters on ground.

Amosun, who expressed confidence that he would win his senatorial seat, also complained of delay due to the card readers processing the voter’s card sluggishly.

“By and large, we can say the election is going on well, it is peaceful though slow, the process is what I call, I want not say cumbersome but it is truly, truly tasking. You can imaged a Polling Officer writing and signing all the three ballot papers, it is a lot of work that he is doing, kudos to all of them, we pray that at the end of the day it will be like this throughout Ogun State and throughout Nigeria because so far so good, it is peaceful except for the issue of the card readers that the people are saying is not working.

“You know our elderly ones when they say for about one hour, two hours, the chances is that they will leave but so far and so good like I said, if I’m going to use where I voted as an example, you can see some elderly people sitting down there, they are having issues with their card readers but they will ensure that everybody vote.

“The major crisis that I think we have here,  where I voted, there are about, I think 390 something but we have only 300 ballot papers, I don’t know why,  that is even if they are saying that those that have collected their PVCs the way it is shown here, they still need to bring more.

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“I have been told those are the real challenges. I have asked our people to call the REC, to call the INEC people to draw their attention to this because people after labouring this hard, they shouldn’t be disenfranchised, everybody must be in a position to exercise their franchise and they wouldn’t be able to do this if they (INEC) don’t have enough ballot papers.

“We calling round to let the authorities, particularly INEC know they should please increase the number of ballot papers they put around.

“Imagine a situation where we have almost 800 voters and they got 300, 400, so why? I think that they are sorting that out, our people will still be here waiting everywhere and all of them must vote. We have been calling them to see how they will rectify this.

“I’m certainly assured of victory after the voting but I don’t want them to short-change us, to short-change our people. In a place where we have 800 and you have 300, 400 ballot papers for different offices, it is not right, I expect that we should even have probably a little more or the exact numbers of ballot papers but I’m sure that they are working on it.

“People have been bombarding me with calls of shortage of ballot papers, I’m sure that they are working on it and they will look into it, we still have untill 2 o’clock. I think at the end of the day we will have a very credible and fair elections.”

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC),  Prince Dapo Abiodun, voted earlier in his ward 3 polling unit 1 at Iperu, his home town while former governor Gbenga Daniel voted around 8:30 am based manual accreditation at his Shote ward, Sagamu, after the card reader had repeatedly failed to recognise his fingers.

Also, Hon. Ladi Adebutu A PDP voted at polling unit 4, Ward 5, within Wesley Primary School, Iperu  exactly 11:02am  and lauded INEC and security operatives for the peaceful conduct of the election.

Adebutu who is the acclaimed governorship candidate of PDP in Ogun State according to the National leadership of the party, Uche Secondus and National Working Committee of PDP, however said the credibility of the electoral body would be determined by their transparency and the outcome of the election result.

He therefore asked loser of the presidential election to accept the outcome of the election result and embrace peace in the interest of democracy.