The public holiday given by the Federal Government for the Saturday general elections has helped those who want to vote to travel to their various places where they registered .
Thousands of travellers moved from Southwest to South East and South south.
An official of the Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC) , Who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not supposed to speak to the Press said : ” My brother ,with the type of movement we are seeing today , I think the public holiday put by the Federal Government worked very well .
The previous Friday ,people traveled ,but today as at 9am , thousands of vehicles and passengers have arrived Edo and Delta , while many of them are on transit to the East .
” You will agree with me that the rush is synonymous with festive period like Christmas . There is gridlock on the Onitsha bridge . I thought that the postponement of the elections would discourage people from returning home for the election, but with what I am seeing , the public holiday has really helped . Well , I thank God that even though that there is rush ,but we did not record any accident.
A commercial driver , Mathias Kwushue ,who came from Lagos to Asaba said : ” I was chartered by two families . I left Lagos by 4 am because I knew there would be traffic .
I knew because people stormed our park at Jibowu , Lagos as at Thursday to . I was surprised that even at 5am the Lagos – Benin / Onitsha road was so busy . The Easterners traveled en masse . Another thing that the I love is the security measure put in place by the government . There is full Military and police presence on the way . The policemen were greeting us ‘ Happy election’ as it was done during Christmas. Well ,it was a way of begging for money and we cheerfully part with some money to them .
I won’t call it extortion ,but they were begging with style as they used to do during Christmas period “.
Ifeanyi Okolie , a Teacher in Ubulu – Uku said even though his people were disappointed , but they were fully prepared for the election.
At Oghara , Ethiope West Local Government Area , Delta State , James Ibori’ s home town , there was fear and apprehension as there were heavy military presence , especially in front of The Independent National Electoral Commission office , near Oghara Stadium . The soldiers were busy searching vehicles and their passengers . Some drivers who has no courage to stand the presence of the soldiers made a detour .A soldier said : ” we are doing our job. we have been ordered to protect electoral material , INEC office , its staff and the people .
We have been instructed to make sure that the election is not sabotaged . Our mandate is to make sure that we frustrate bad people ,including ballot box snatchers and unscrupulous politicians and their thugs . We are searching vehicles for security reasons . It is only bad people with clandestine intension that will be afraid of soldiers.
