Lagos,Nigeria – When Tobi Olayinka went to vote in the Nigerian state of Lagos on Saturday morning, she brought a backpack with food and drink and an umbrella against the sun.
The 31-year-old voting star thought for the first time that she could make a difference with her voice. The Lagosian was determined to stay in her polling place until the results were announced.
Olayinka is one of many young Nigerians who have become excited about voting with the emergence of Labor Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, a third frontrunner in what used to be a two-horse race between major parties – the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“I had so much hope that our future could be better this time,” she told Al Jazeera.
She cast her vote before 10:00 am (09:00 GMT) on February 25, then sat in front of the closed shops opposite her polling station (PU) in Ojuelegba, a popular neighborhood in Surulere Local Government in mainland Lagos.
Counting was expected to begin after voting ended around 2:30 p.m. — a moment Olayinka was waiting for. People who were already waiting in line were allowed to vote and in some places voting continued until midnight. But she never saw the results of her polling station, recorded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as number 24 from Akinhami/Cole Ward.
2.30pm (it’s a bit more complicated than this. At 2.30pm no one was allowed to queue anymore, but
At around 13:00 (12:00 GMT), a group of men charged at her from the intersection of Akinhami Street. Then she heard a shot. She took cover.
“I ran faster than ever, flying over flower pots and gutters,” she said. She eventually hid in a compound where one of the residents opened the gate to let people escape the violence.
What happened next on PU 24 was included from a roof terrace across the street with a clear view of the voting booth, which was attacked by 10 men.
One of them grabs the table the election officials had been sitting on and throws it into the street, scattering all the documents on it, the video shows.
Another goes straight to the box with the red lid that says PRESIDENTIAL, lifts it high above his head, and slams it onto the tarmac, the cast ballots piling up on the street. The other two ballot boxes receive the same treatment from a third man.
All this takes no more than 20 seconds. According to eyewitnesses, the violent group continued its journey down Akinwande Street, looting three more polling stations in the area before leaving.
Violence is a tried and tested strategy in Nigeria, Africa’s largest democracy, to disrupt the voting process, especially in neighborhoods traditionally vying for the opposition.
Violent groups known as “political thugs” have been used for decades by Nigeria’s established political parties to forcefully influence the electoral process.
When the vote doesn’t seem to be going as planned, the candidates mobilize these thugs to raid the polling stations. Not only does it deter people from voting, but it also invalidates the ballots of those who do vote.
The election body canceled the results of the four polling stations attacked near Olayinka.
According to INEC’s data, there were a total of 1,950 voters registered with these units. And it’s not the only location in Surulere, one of Lagos’ 20 local government areas with an estimated population of 650,000, where the voting process was violently disrupted on election day.
On Akerele Street, two kilometers (1.2 mi) from Olayinka’s voting unit, about five men wearing black masks and black pump guns jumped out of a yellow minibus at the gate of Falolu Road at around 2:30 pm (1:30 pm GMT). They fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd as Nigerian and international journalists watched.
The masked men took possession of the presidential ballot box and destroyed the other two before disappearing. Voting at this polling station with 934 registered voters was subsequently cancelled.
A little over a kilometer away, on Adedoyin Road, there was barely a trace of polling stations 35 and 36. Green shards of glass lay in the street and loads of completed ballots lay trampled in the gutter.
The election officials were nowhere to be seen: they had fled when the violence began. Voting for Nigeria’s national elections went ahead, but the votes of the 1,554 registered voters at these two polling stations would not count.
“An hour ago we suddenly heard a noise,” says a street resident who had just cast her vote and was waiting for a friend.
Five men emerging from a Toyota Sienna and a Corolla, holding bottles, machetes and sticks, targeted the waiting crowd at a polling station.
“Bottles flew through the air. Everyone started running and I got hurt,” she said, pointing to her heel where shards left deep wounds.
The men destroyed the ballot boxes and threw away the papers. They took away the box with the red wrapper marked PRESIDENTIAL.
The witnesses to the violence on Adedoyin Road disagree on which party the robbers belong to.
They all agree on one thing: these were political thugs sent by candidates who were not happy with the expected outcome of the results.
Voters felt helpless as their ballots went up in smoke.
“Look at how they are stripping us of our democratic rights,” said a man with a graying beard, shaking his head at the ditch with the crumpled ballots.
The election commission canceled the results of 20 polling stations in Surulere due to violent incidents. The total number of registered voters in these units was 12,955.
Fred Adoki was on Adedoyin Road when the violence broke out. A few days later, he is still shocked by what happened on his street. He waited cheerfully to cast his vote.
“The audience was so numerous. It made me so happy,” he said. He still can’t believe they all came for nothing.
“This time I believed I had the power to make a difference,” said the 37-year-old. “But now I am robbed of that. It’s so frustrating.”
It left him feeling disenfranchised, but he said it won’t discourage him from voting next time: “I believe we have the power to change something.”
Tobi Olayinka, the first voter from Lagos, said she is more determined than ever to make her vote count.
“It’s too important. Nothing works in Nigeria. It shouldn’t be such a struggle to live in this place. We need change for this generation and for our children,” she told Al Jazeera.
On March 11, Nigeria will hold another round of elections to choose legislators and governors for the 36 states, including Lagos State, Nigeria’s economic capital. Voting also takes place in the polling stations where the ballots have been cancelled.
“I am a very stubborn person. I’ll be there again with my backpack,” said Olayinka with a grin.
