Presence of security personnel excites Ife residents Some residents of Ife, Osun, have expressed happiness over the presence of security operatives across the state as part of measures to ensure a hitch-free gubernatorial election on Aug. 9. Security agents, including soldiers, Department of State Security, Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), have started patrolling Osun ahead of the election. Some of the residents who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ile-Ife, on Friday commended the Federal Government for deploying the security agents. They said the presence of the personnel had given the electorate rest of mind, and reason to expect free and fair election on Saturday. A secondary school teacher, Mr Julius Adereti, said that presence of the security men in Ile-Ife would encourage voters to go out and cast their votes without fear of molestation. Adereti, however, appealed to the personnel to ensure proper monitoring of polling centres to avert breakdown of law and order during voting. Dr Adebola Adesanya, medical practitioner at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, said the presence of the security men would encourage eligible voters to come out en masse to perform their civic responsibility. ``Before now, the electorate had been contemplating whether to come out or not to vote on Election Day because of fear of violence. ``Now, it is clear that the officers will provide adequate security for voters”, she said. A vulcaniser, Mr Busuyi Omoyajowo, commended the federal government for taking steps to provide atmosphere conducive for voters. Omoyajowo enjoined residents of Ile-Ife to cooperate with the security agents by obeying instructions on movement and voting. Meanwhile, a visit by NAN to some motor parks in Ile-Ife indicated that many residents were travelling to their country homes to cast their vote on Aug. 9. A visit to Ilesa, Ondo Road and Campus Gate parks, showed many families boarding buses for the country sides. Mr Sola Ibikunke, who was travelling with his family to Omuo-Ekiti, told NAN that they registered in his home town and needed to go there and vote. The story was similar at Urban-day Park, Modakeke, where many commuters were jostling to board the few available buses to Ede and Osogbo. However, transport fares from Ile-Ife to Ilesa, Ikeji-Arakeji, Erio-Ekiti among others, remained N250, N500 and N600 respectively despite the huge turnout of passengers. A commercial driver plying Ondo-Ore route, Mr Kabir Ilesanmi, said there was no reason for increase in transport fare as there was no increase in the pump price of petroleum products
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 16:06:39 +0000
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