By ACJ UNIBEN
The University of Benin, Benin City, Edo state, on Tuesday, conducted an election for the Students’ Union Government Executive council. In polling units like Hall 1, Hall 2, and Hall 3, rigging, violence and disagreement was observed.
The election at halls 1, 2, and 3 started peaceably in today’s morning sun. Although, the election in Hall 2 started a bit later than those of the other halls. While the election had begun in other halls, agents and field workers were seen on a line in Hall 2, and some people with black face caps which has ‘Eleco’ in gold letters printed on them, were seen talking with the election officers present as to why the election has not started. Soon enough, at 11:44am, the election began in Hall 2.
The election went on peacefully and morally in the polling units (halls 1, 2 & 3). Only students that have paid their current level school fees were eligible to vote. School I.D. cards or Eligibility slips were used to validate the school fees printout. After the validation with school ID cards or Eligibility slips, the election officers confirmed the students’ information with a list of they had of students who have had their school fees settled. Once the voter’s name was not on the list, the voter is not allowed to vote. A returning officer in Hall 3 polling unit confirmed this. He said, “If you have not paid your school fees, you are not eligible to vote”.
At the start of the election in Hall 2, it was rowdy as voters refused to maintain a decent queue. They profess to have waited too long and were getting tired. To solve this issue, DSS and Man O’War officials came to the scene and students were driven outside the hall 2 gate. A canopy and chairs were brought to shield the electorates from the scorching sun. Although the students did not take this lightly, they retorted with anger and some left angrily as a result.
The peace of the election in these polling units (halls 1, 2 & 3) soon went missing. The stated time to end the election was fast approaching and a large number of students were yet to vote because they hadn’t paid their school fees. In Hall 2, FASA’s polling unit, disunity erupted. A guy who was said to be ISD 200-level course rep along with most ISD students reportedly voted for a candidate not carried by their faculty; Divine instead of Winner. However, a lady said, “I’m not sure about that because most ISD students are still outside and have yet to vote”. According to a FASA student, the faculty already had alignment on who to vote for but some ISD students who voted based on their preferences, they were said to have gone against this alignment by voting against Winner.
FASA speaker said that the commotion was birthed because FASA and ISD have a different candidates and some ISD students were noted voting against the candidate of the faculty.
This alignment issue was not only at the Hall 2 polling unit but also in Halls 1 & 3. At Hall 1, the alignment issue was between the aspirants and the departmental election directors (those that were there to see to the success of the day). According to them, alignment had been made with some other faculties as to who to vote for but the alignment was breached. According to one young Lady who from the FASA polling unit came to the Social Sciences polling unit (hall 1), she said, Social Sciences breached their alignment with FASA. She said the faculty was supposed to vote on behalf of two candidates from FASA, but only one was(Winner) and dropped the other (Socrates). The other party disagreed with this claim.
In Hall 3 also, an issue surfaced. A lady from Life Sciences called “Vanessa” was seen causing commotion in the polling unit. According to some group of girls, “Yes, she broke the bottle, a coke bottle. Seems like something happened there in her faculty’s polling unit and she came to retaliate. Somebody was at their polling unit making alignment with people there to vote for his person instead. So, she found out and came here. The problem I had with her is that she shouldn’t have come to fight, she could have drawn the person out and settled matters; but she came, broke a bottle, punched a guy, and was too violent”. ACJ UNIBEN learned that Vanessa came to retaliate as a result of some physical science persons came to Life Sciences polling unit at Clinical Hostel, to assault and harm the Life Sciences Governor.
Soon after, the election turned around and rigging reportedly began. For most of the election at these polling units (halls 1, 2 & 3) only school fees printout was allowed as a pass to vote but at the almost end of the election, others who had not paid their school fees were allowed to vote. The students coordinating the election at the polling centers clamored that at other polling units, students were allowed to vote without school fees printout. Physical sciences at first begin sneaking their students in to vote. Later, wrong identities were used to vote. Some students were reportedly given another person’s school fees printout slips to vote and some used another person’s kofa school fees displayed on the phone screen to vote.
Gradually, at the Hall 2 polling unit, students were allowed to vote also without their school fees printout. At past 3 pm, the electoral officer announced that accreditation ended at 3 pm and every other student who is yet to vote should come in and exercise their franchise.
In Hall 1, rigging reportedly took place too. The wrong identity method also was used.
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